Justice Belarusian style: victim fined, attackers released

A case of flagrant injustice took place in Viciebsk.

The charter97.org web-site learnt about that from a reader Andrej.

“On 7 December I went to a club “La Ratushy”. There I was asked for a smoke, but I denied, since I do not smoke. One of the group of guys tried to take me aside. I did not agree, and then he grabbed me on the jacket and pulled aside, where the rest attacked me. They beat me, but I managed to get up and ran, shouting for police to be called. When police came, they were put into the police car in the back, and me in the front. At the police station the investigator spoke with them about something, but I was not let in. When I was let in, the thing was that they did not see anything and did not know anything, and the investigator suggested me to refuse from pressing charges. I did not do that”, - he said.

The young man added that after that he went home and did not even go to a hospital to register beatings, since he was very tired.

“The other day I received a phone call from the district police officer regarding my appeal. I came to the police station, and he told me to sign a protocol of participating in a fight. But I was the victim, I did not beat anyone and did not even read the protocol. In the end I wrote that I did not agree with the protocol, and the district policemen told that I would be fined to 360 thousand roubles, while the attackers were not punished at all. Probably, they just bribed the investigator or something like that, because one of them serves in the Ministry for Emergencies”, - the reader emphasized.