Maksim Viniarski: “They promised to leave me rotting in prison”

Policemen took the European Belarus civic campaign’s coordinator from prison and kept illegaly by force for 7 hours.

Maksim Viniarski, who served 15 days in jail under falsified charges, reported about that to the charter97.org web-site at night on 14 September, when he finally managed to walk free.

- Roughly at 16.40 I was taken from the cell up to the second floor to the jail’s call center. The on-duty officer gave me a certificate of my release, I signed for it. They I was told: “Wait in the hall”. In about 10-15 minutes two policemen in came. They wore the uniform, but had no IDs or badges. They approached the on-duty officer, spoke about something and put signatures in some papers. Then they came out to me in the hall and ordered to follow them. I asked them to introduce themselves, asked what was going on, but I was silently grabbed and pulled towards the exit.

There already was a grey car in the yard of the jail building. I managed to scream that I was being taken out, but was pushed in and taken outside the gates. Through back streets I was taken to the second belt road and then to the Riga department store, and then – the Soviet district police department’s station, where the arrest was put on papers.

There I was invited to take a sit and remain seated. I asked what was going on, they answered: “You still have not had your administrative arrest run out”. 13 minutes remained for the arrest time to run out. As this time passed I demanded that I was released and wanted to walk away, but they would not let me out. They blocked the exit and started pushing me back from the door.

Then they did not have any talks with me, would not allow to make phone calls. Once, at about 8-9 p.m., a captain approached and suggested to talk. I refused. I wrote a statement, requesting to call a lawyer and refused to further participate in any procedural actions (including talks, conversations etc). Some major read this and said: “It is a serious paper. No one is keeping your here”.

I walked out to the street, asked the time. It turned out it was already 23.45. I started calling to friends and relatives from a public phone.

- What were they trying to achieve?

- It could be something more serious. Probably, I was saved by having managed to shout loudly before they pushed me into the car, and wave at the people, who were waiting for me at the gates.

At the same time my relatives were already looking for me at all the police departments and writing requests on my disappearance.

There was too much noise to keep me for longer, so they had to let me walk free.

- Before the trial you received death threats from policemen.

- Yes, one of the policemen, who testified as a witness in court, actually expressed threats of physical reprisal, and he did so in the presence of his boss, who was gently smiling at it. I do not know the reasons why he did that, but it took place.

In general, I expected anything. I did not rule out that they could use violence in prison. But he did not show up, neither did I see the deputy head of the Soviet district’s police department, who was in charge of my arrest.

Probably, they had something gone wrong. From time to time someone called the policemen on their mobile phones at the police station, and they would immediately leave the building so I did not hear what they talked about.

Maybe, the day of the city stood in the way. Police worked in the heavy security mode, someone could not come…

- How did another 15 days in Akrescina jail pass?

- In general, it is all the same. Dirt, poor food, terrible conditions. The only thing is that when I was being taken there, the deputy head of the Soviet district’s police department said to me: “You should change the kind of activities, or change the country of residence. Otherwise, you will rot in prisons”.

- How many days have you spent in jails altogether?

- It seems that 265 days. I have already stopped counting…

- How will this finally end?

- Either they break me, or I break them. I am not going to give up. The arrests are becoming even more wild and arbitrary. It is one thing, to get arrested for an action of solidarity with Ukrainian people at Ukraine’s embassy, but a different thing, when you are grabbed before the IIHF world championship, before the Charnobyl Shlakh, before any event of the slightest importance… The absolutely arbitrary arrests show that they have no other ways to deal with us apart from simply isolating.

I can be of no help to them on that. I am not going to stop and keep silent.