Story By: Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor: Alex Cope, Agency: Real Press
A protestor has shared horrific photos of his beaten body, denouncing police brutality and torture in Belarus during public riots against the re-election of the ‘Europe’s Last Dictator’ Alexander Lukashenko.
According to local news channel Belsat, the pictures show the body of a 35-year-old man identified only as Dmitry had been walking towards the Pushkinskaya metro station in the Belarussian capital of Minsk on the 10th August when he was attacked by police.
The disturbing pictures show massive bruises and wounds all over his body.
Dmitry said: “At about 11:00 PM, the special forces agents began to throw flash-bang grenades and shoot rubber bullets. I was hit by four bullets for sure, maybe more. One near my ear, I can’t hear well now.”
According to the man, the officers started beating almost all the protesters who didn’t manage to run away and then forced them all into the police vans.
He said: “There was a man, aged around 50, he was feeling bad so we asked for water and fresh air. Instead, we received a big dose of pepper spray into the cell so the man felt even worse. In about 40 minutes they brought us to a sort of police station where all people were brutally beaten.”
Dmitry revealed that the special forces agents even had to call an ambulance after torturing the detainees as they had broken the nose of one of them and the leg of another.
He said: “The officers were telling us: You want to see changes? Here they are! Who do you think you are? You think you have the right to go out and demand anything?” It was terrible. They beat us in such a way like they wanted to kill us. At some point I thought that they will murder me. I was ready to mentally say goodbye to my wife and daughter.”
According to Belsat, the images are just one example of the many detentions taking place all over the Belarus Republic, especially in its capital Minsk, after thousands of people rioted against the results of the latest elections in the country, as the man commonly nicknamed ‘Europe’s last dictator’, Alexander Lukashenko, 65, won with over 80% of electorate support.
Dmitry said: “There are a lot of people like me who were waiting for these elections and hoped. But they spat in our souls, stole our hope, lied to us. I saw how many people stood in the queues at the polling stations with white ribbons. None of them voted for the current government. Our votes were stolen. But it was worth trying. I would not forgive myself if I had not come out.”
Lukashenko has served as the president of Belarus since the establishment of the office 26 years ago on 20 July 1994 and was recently voted in again on the 9th August 2020.
The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo publicly responded to the e result saying that the election was “not free and fair”.
The opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has since declared herself the winner of the elections, demanding that Lukashenko start negotiations.
The dictator leads a notoriously authoritarian regime in Belarus and has had many sanctions imposed on him for the violation of human rights by the European Union and the United States since 2006.
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