BHC to Bring Shatikova’s Lawsuit to Court :: Charter'97 :: News

Public activist Kristina Shatikava was released from the Magilyou psycho-hospital yesterday. As Shatikava informed the BelaPAN, no diagnoses were made to her by the doctors. “All the questions which I was asked at my interview with the psychiatrists were not on a medical subject. They asked about my social contacts, about those who came to see me, who phoned me. Thus it is not a medical but a political matter. They told my mother that I am not a psycho but an eccentric personality”, Shatikava said.

Kristina Shatikava states that when at the hospital she was tied up to the bed and they injected her with different medicines. This weekend I was completely dropped out. And my mother was told that they hadn’t applied any medical staff to me “, Shatikava remarked.

It is to be mentioned that Shatikava disappeared 23 March. Her friend Irina Kacharova passed the witness’s information to the BelaPAN, according to which Kristina had been detained by five unfamiliar persons in a “Niva”car of a dark color. Later Kristina Shatikava told deputy chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Garry Paganyaila that they tried to rape her in the car. The rights defender told the Belaruskiya Navini: ”We consider the case as provocation made for bringing a person into a certain exalted state when defending her dignity. Certainly the girl started fighting for defending herself, thus, she was brought into the hospital in an extremely nervous state and then she faced the doctors”.

Earlier Shatikava was detained in Minsk and brought to Magilyou by the KGB officials. Deputy chairman of the united Civil Party Ludmila Gryaznova told the Belaruskiya Navini that she considered it essential under such conditions that Kristina Shatikava should be medically examine by independent experts. It is necessary to find out what medicines she was given when at the hospital. It is required first of all, for her health security as well as for the case to become clear and provable.

Gryaznova mentioned, ”It is necessary to find the witnesses. Without them it is impossible to expect the successful court hearing”.

Garry Paganyaila shares her opinion. He mentioned that similar cases occurred in Belarus previously. They tried to resort to medical help in Katsyarina Sadouskaya’s case. She, as far as you remember, was taken to the republican psycho-hospital for medical examination. The case of a misdiagnosis made to a certain person had been under our guidance for a long time. Unfortunately we failed to help in its canceling.

In Shatikava’s case everything is transparent, the lawyer considers. ”Everything has been performed according to the scenario of the Soviet times. As long as Kristina has got a baby the administrative charges can’t be brought against her as they may cause her detainment. Definitely on the eve of the 25 March events they tried to prevent her from participating in the action. Psycho-hospital was used as a means of her neutralization”.

Meanwhile Garry Paganyaila also mentioned that it might have happened to anybody.” We advised Kristina to turn to her polyclinic for recording the beatings (according to her, the traces of her being tied to the bed remained). She has also to undergo the neurologist examination. Her state of health must be recorded for bringing the lawsuit on misusing the psychiatry. We shall gather the evidences for bringing the lawsuit to the court and for punishing the guilty ones.