Belarus’s deputy interior minister has pledged to release all protesters by Friday morning, as evidence about beatings and mistreatment by police inside detention centres grew. On Thursday night Alexander Barsukov told reporters outside the Okrestina detention centre in the capital, Minsk: “We will release everyone by 6am.”Photographs from outside the detention centre showed detainees emerging to waiting friends and relatives late on Thursday night and early on Friday morning, but it was unclear if all detainees had been freed by the deadline set by Baruskov. At least two protesters have died and thousands have been detained in a crackdown following President Alexander Lukashenko’s contested re-election. His comments followed tens of thousands of Belarusians staging a wave of peaceful protests on Thursday against Lukashenko’s disputed re-election and an ensuing brutal police crackdown. On Thursday night the authorities had begun releasing protesters, some of whom had bruises and described being held tightly packed inside cells. They also complained of mistreatment, including beatings. One woman described being beaten, having her clothes removed and being threatened with rape. Amnesty International said detainees had testified that they received severe beatings and threats of rape.“Former detainees told us that detention centres have become torture chambers, where protesters are forced to lie in the dirt while police kick and beat them with truncheons,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “They described being stripped naked and subjected to sadistic beatings while listening to the screams of other victims.”Earlier tens of thousands of people had formed human chains in the city, many wearing white and holding flowers and balloons, to protest against police brutality during four nights of unrest since Sunday’s vote. Demonstrators held placards reading “Change!” and “No violence” and wore white bracelets, one of the symbols of the opposition movement.

All data is taken from the source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Article Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/14/belarus-pledges-to-release-all-protesters-as-evidence-of-beatings-mount


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