Bloody Policemen Get 15 Years of Jail :: Charter'97 :: News

The Minsk city court sentenced law-enforcers Alexander Bely and Maksim Ostrovlyanchik to 15 year incarceration. The two policemen used to work at a police station, where they beat unto death a detainee Nikolai Nagorny. The court found out that the law-enforcers were beating and harassing the man for six hours and the victim died from heavy bleeding. Medics revealed numerous broken bones and bruises. For the first time over the past decade the court ruled such a heavy penalty for policemen. Up until now they usually passed milder verdicts against murderers and torturers from police. Usually they would be sued for mere power abuse.

The Belarusian Helsinki Committee human rights defender Oleg Gulak commented on the incident to Radio Svaboda in the following way:
“Today nobody in Belarus marvels at the fact that they often beat people even unto death. Tortures are oftentimes applied by police in their actions. For the very first time the court finally found them guilty of murder. The passage of such a sentence testifies to the fact that they are now regarding the problem with greater seriousness than before.”
Alexander Bely and Maksim Ostrovlyanchik will serve their terms in a special prison for former policemen. It was created in order to spare the law-enforcers from retaliation of other prisoners.