Police Lawlessness in Retaliation for Newspaper Distribution :: Charter'97 :: News

ZUBR movement’s activist Denis Chikalev was detained and brutally beaten on January 9 by the Gomel police. The reason for that was the passing out to passer-bys of the New Year issue of the newspaper “ZUBR”.

Out of the police van, which pulled over near Denis, there jumped out two sergeants. They twisted the guy’s arms behind his back and threw him on the back seat. After that Chikalev was delivered to the police station #5, where they held him for some two hours. Unknown plain-clothed agents tried to talk to him, but the boy refused to answer their questions. Then they started hitting him with a rubber stick, fists and legs. However, this produced an opposite effect – the man declined to answer any questions and didn’t sign their papers. Approximately two and a half hours later they let him go, having seized a few hundred newspapers and stickers.
“I’m not going to leave such police brutalities without reaction and will file a concomitant complaint to the procuracy. I surely don’t hope that they will face imminent punishment. However, this will enable us to learn their names, which they never divulged. That, in its turn, means, that sooner or later these individuals will suffer punishment,” – commented Denis Chikalev on the occurred incident.
Despite police resistance, since early autumn last year they disseminated in Gomel a few hundred thousand newspapers and flyers with call “He Must Go!”.