Hrodna: Riot Police Break Arm to Aliaksandr Shumkevich

07.08.2007.

On 28 July, at a live performance of Okean Elzy Ukrainian rock band in Hrodna the riot police violently beat Aliaksandr Shumkevich, a leader of the youth structure of United Civil Party, Young Democrats, and broke one of his arms. The incident took place 15 minutes to the end of the action, when several youth activists unfolded a white-red-white flag and raised it above the crowd.

Several persons in mufti and policemen immediately approached Shumkevich, twisted his arms and started pulling away from Savetskaya Square, where the concert was held. He asked them to let him take his bag where his passport and money for ticket to Minsk were. Instead the policemen kicked him several times. They drove him to the Culture House of Textile Workers and composed a violation reports. Then the detainee was taken to Leninski borough police department and taken to a temporary isolator.

‘At 2.30 p.m. the following day the arms started aching so badly that I had to apply for medical service’, said Shumkevich. The ambulance doctors registered a fracture and took me to the hospital. The duty policemen consulted his administration for a long time before letting the doctors take me away. At the hospital the doctors put the arm in plaster and let me go home.

Shumchanka still has not received any summons to court. By the way, the report which the police composed against him did not mention that a white-red-flag was raised. Instead, they wrote that he swore dirtily, as they usually do. It witnesses that now the authorities abstain from giving political charges.

Aliaksandr Shumchanka has already complained about the police lawlessness to Leninski borough police department of Hrodna. He also intends to register the beating at a forensic expertise in Minsk.