Belarus Daily | 27 Jan

BYPOL published names of the people involved in the death of Raman Bandarenka; the number of political prisoners in Belarus has reached 220 so far; a Minsk resident who had told the court about being raped with a truncheon was sentenced to five years in prison

27 January 2021 | Voice of Belarus
As of today 9 journalists have been put behind bars for just doing their job. 
Source: BELSAT

BYPOL released the names of the people involved in the death of Raman Bandarenka. Besides the security services and police officers, they are people from Lukashenkо’s inner circle

BYPOL published the results of their investigation into the death of Raman Bandarenka. In addition to the previously mentioned names of Dmitry Baskov, the chairman of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Association, Natallia Eismant, Lukashenko’s press secretary, and Dmitry Shakuta, the honored master of sports of Belarus and a multiple Muay Thai world champion, BYPOL provided the names of security services officials who were present that evening at the Square of Changes as well as the name of the officer on duty in the police office where Bandarenka had been taken after the arrest. 

The BYPOL investigation revealed the personal information of the event participants, published the conversations between the police and the ambulance crew, and provided the details about Raman Bandarenka’s health condition in the police department and at the hospital, conversations between doctors and family members, medical documents, and his death certificate.

Source: TUT.BY

After being detained a young man was abused and spent 12 days in an intensive care; today he has been sentenced to 5 years in prison

Minsk court sentenced 32-year-old Viktar Barushka to five years in a maximum security prison for inflicting grievous bodily harm on a riot police officer. Viktar was detained on 18 October 2020. He has been in custody ever since. During his arrest he was knocked down and fell to the ground together with a riot police officer. Due to the fall the riot police officer suffered a broken leg. In court, Viktar Barushka spoke about the beatings and humiliation that had happened to him after the arrest: “They beat me and inserted a truncheon into my anus. After that I spent twelve days in the intensive care of the emergency hospital. My legs were so swollen I couldn’t take off my jeans. When they were beating me I was protecting my left leg. I have had a ligament surgery on my left leg, I am not able to withhold blows to this leg,” said Viktar.

So far the number of political prisoners in Belarus has reached 220 people

31 more people have been recognized as political prisoners in Belarus. Now there are 220 of them. Among the new political prisoners are Viktar Barushka, Yauhen Kalinouski who is a gifted student, prize-winner of the school Olympiads and the President’s special fund, “Man of the Vitebsk Region”, and who was sentenced to four years in prison, and 29 more people.

Yauhen Kalinouski.
Source: TUT.BY

International human rights defenders published reports on torture and violence in Belarus

The international human rights organization, Amnesty International, published a report on the excessive post presidential election use of force against peaceful demonstrators in Belarus, torture, and harassment by the security forces.

The Russian “Committee Against Torture” and the “World Organization Against Torture” released a report on the use violence by the Belarusian security forces against the protesters. In a 46-page document entitled “ ‘The Corridor of truncheons’: The road of the Belarusian Authorities. Police Violence Report” describes the cases of 13 people who were abused from 9 to 13 August 2020.

After Akrestsina on 10 August 2020.
Source: TUT.BY

Six more non-EU European countries join EU sanctions against Belarus

As indicated in the statement of the head of the European Union’s foreign affairs agency, the countries candidates for joining the European Union, namely North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, as well as states-members of the European Free Trade Association and European Economic Area, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, have joined the corresponding decision of the European Council on Belarusian sanctions.

Source: TUT.BY

For more information on the events of 27 January 2021, please visit Infocenter Free Belarus 2020: