The Investigative Committee of Belarus reported that it refused to open a criminal case based on the statements of 680 people who claimed that security forces used force against them during the protests in August 2020.

The Investigative Committee stated that the collected evidence, including the videos of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, testified that the officers of the internal affairs bodies used physical force and special equipment in accordance with the requirements of the law.

“The statements circulated by individual, later recognized by extremist telegram channels about alleged abuse of office, expressed in torture, sexual abuse, have not been objectively confirmed, including from the explanations of the applicants themselves,” the UK statement said. …

According to the ministry, from August 9 to 15, 2020, more than 2,000 people detained during the protests were taken to the Center for Isolation of Offenders on Akrestsin Street and to the temporary detention center of the Minsk police. Due to the illegal actions of the employees of the isolation wards, 680 people turned to the investigators. The UK said that people wrote applications to the department in order to use the fact of the appeal “as a fictitious tool to obtain” political asylum “in other countries.”

During the protests in Belarus, which began in August 2020 after the presidential elections, many detainees were taken to the detention center on Akrestsin Street. There is numerous evidence that the detainees were beaten and tortured in the isolation ward – the victims themselves , as well as journalists and  medical workers spoke about this  . The UN said that in the first three weeks of protests in Belarus, 450 cases of torture and ill-treatment of detainees were documented.

(c)MEDUZA 2021