IT-specialist about his experience in Zhodino prison.
«How much do you earn?!» — they ask and beat you immediately.
An IT-specialist, who was detained by the police near the metro station,told dev.by, what happened next. As per the narrator’s wish, we are not mentioning any names and specific facts.
— I was detained at the metro station, after I was taken to a blue minivan, afterwards to a police truck. There I was laid on the floor and started immediately being beaten by a police baton. They took our phones and told us to unblock them. Firstly I thought about not doing it, I removed fingerprints blocking from my phone previously. But one of OMON staff just started brutally beating me, so in the end I unblocked my phone.
He started checking the channels I was following: «Haaa, Нехта, chapter 97 (he started smashing with his fist), so you voted for Tikhanovskaya, right? So where is your Tikhanovskaya right now!» And started beating me again. I covered my head and grouped myself. First he was beating with a baton, later he continued doing it with his arms and legs.
After we were taken to another police truck. Тhere was a completely dis moralized and disoriented bike rider. They brought also some other people. One of them asked for some fresh air, another one said he was not going to keep this case silent. He started screaming, but one of the OMON staff said, if he is not going to shut up, he was going to block any air. What basically happened. We didn’t get any air from the outside at all. This way we got to the Internal affairs office of Partizansky district.
All of us (20 persons) were put down on our knees on the street. OMON was screaming: «Muzzles to the floor!». One female staff was collecting our names and birth dates. If she didn’t like anything, she was just madly screaming at us. We were beaten again, a little bit less brutally.
After being accounted, we were taken to the building. We were allowed to stand up when OMON was leaving. When they were back, we were screamed at again and beaten. And we were again on our knees. I heard how other people were brutally beaten too.
We were allowed to relax a bit after OMON left. Police trucks brought 75 more persons. We stayed like this till the morning next day. Policemen even gave us water and allowed some people to make a call.
At noon we were taken to a police truck. It was the scariest moment. Our hands were in coupler. We had to bend down and run to a police truck. There were 4 OMON employees, who were beating each of us entering the police truck with a stave. We were standing facing the wall hearing they are doing it to everyone realizing it’s going to happen to each of us. In an hour it was our turn. We were laying on the floor. I was covered with other people. We all were continuously beaten. I was in the middle of them all, so I was a bit lucky.
They screamed: «So, are you for Tikhanovskaya?» Those, who were wearing a white band, were beaten thrice more. That was a trip-20 people, laying on each other, with blocked hands. OMON was continuously beating us, walking on us. Everyone was deeply shocked, some of us were screaming.
They started asking different questions, if they didn’t like the answer, people were attacked again: «How much do you earn?» one of the guys responded: «1800». He was madly screamed at and even more brutally beaten: «So you are not satisfied with living in this country?!»
This action was going on like 15–20 minutes. After they continued walking on us. After they calmed down and said: «You all are going to be taken to the woods now».
My hands immediately became numb, I couldn’t move my fingers. I was suppressed by other bodies covering me. I started panicking and asked OMON to move me a little bit, but I got hit on my back with a baton. In the end I broke the buckle, to move my hands a bit. It was very difficult, I got some scratches.
We all were sweating so much, that the floor was completely wet. We were all laying with our faces down to the floor in layers on each other.
We met the first group of people who were transported. OMON was just sitting and making jokes telling us that the fact they are beating us is called “repair” for the sake of “repairing” us. The guy who was telling us this, was laughing.
How surrealistic it was. This OMON employee even removed his mask, made jokes, said that he is going to give us some vodka sometime, cause he was not believing we’re were detained for nothing. He was counting how much we had earned (he was thinking we were paid 800 USD), he mentioned, he would never go for this, counting on the fact the way we were beaten (he was one of the those, who participated in this tortures). He was asked, why they were beating us so brutally, he responded “we cannot avoid repairs”.
We got 15 cups of tea for 30 persons.
We were taken to Zhodino prison. The buckles were removed. We were divided into groups and were taken to the сells. There were 30 persons in a ten persons cell . We realized that nobody was going to beat us any more. We started checking on each other to figure out the injuries we got. One of us had a broken arm, another one was covered with bruises and didn’t remember anything. This guy almost didn’t move and slept mostly all the time.
We didn’t eat for like 24 hours. I was sleeping on the floor. In the morning we got 30 portions of porridge and 6 spoons. We got soup and compote for lunch. One guy got 9 days of imprisonment according to the court. We got rice for dinner. Later I was released however I was sure I would get 15 days of imprisonment. There were already volunteers outside, giving us food and coffee, asking about other people.
