Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

Torture in police department: Threats of killing to get confession

Belsat TV

The police department of Minsk's Leninski district again found itself in the middle of a torture scandal.

Pavel Plaksa again reported about using torture against him to make him confess. No one was punished after inquiries were carried out over his complaint. Like in the story of Vasily Sarochyk, policemen used standard tortures: stress positions, batons and putting a plastic bag over arrested man's head. Pavel's relatives didn't know where he was.

Pavel denied his evidence and demanded to carry out medical examination at the first opportunity. Doctors confirmed some days later he had injuries, which he had received in the Leninski district police department. Pavel Plaksa had 25 x 30 cm bruises on his body. He couldn't move his arms, which became blue due to tight handcuffs.

No inquiries gave answers to the following questions:

Pavel was not in the Leninski district police department from 11:15 a.m. 31.05.2012 to 7:00 a.m. 01.06.2012. It is reported that investigative procedures lasted for 7 hours in this period of time.

He was not in the Leninski district police department from 1:00 a.m. To 9:15 a.m. 02.06.2012. It was reported that investigative procedures lasted for 1.5 hours.

He was taken from a detention facility to the Leninski district police department, where he spent five hours from 12 noon to 5:00 p.m. 04.06.2012. No investigative procedures were carried out. Where was the arrested man for a total of 12 hours? What was he doing for that time? What wasn't mentioned in police reports? Why do officers of the Leninski district police department refuse to explain their actions?

The detainee claims policemen wanted him to confess to the offence he hadn't committed and threatened to kill him if he refused to do so.

It became clear why the investigators were so cruel after a court received evidence of the crimes – absence of fingerprints and other signs of presence of the “offender” on the scenes of crime, the fact that he didn't have stolen items, absence of eyewitnesses and phone conversations and so on. Witnesses in investigative procedures were … relatives of the investigators.