Police Killed Shiftman of Svietlahorsk Heating Plant at Sobering-up Station

10.08.2005.

Piatro Zykun, deputy chair of Svietlahorsk police, refused to comment on the incident, whereas Dzmitry Bierabiou, deputy procurator of Svietlahorsk district, said that the killer, a policeman who worked at the sobering-up station, had been already arrested and given charges on Article #426 of the Criminal Code, excess of the official powers.

The father of the killed Vasil Shavialienka, retired police officer Mikhail Shavialienka, said to Homiel correspondent of Radio Liberty:
-- I went to the procurator’s office. The procurator said that my son was killed at about 1 a.m. on 4 August. He was driven to the sobering-up station by the police. They detained him 30 meters from home, though he asked them not to do it. They twisted his arms and took him into the car. According to the father, they started torturing the detainee after he phoned home. They smashed his head and broke the nose. There are bruises across the head, legs and neck, and rope marks on the wrists. The duty policeman smothered him. He put his elbow under my son’s chin and strangled him for three times.

It is not the first time when the police kill people at sobering-up stations. Three years ago the same happened to a shiftman of the watch factory in Minsk.