First trials against the young people detained on Friday and Saturday were held in the town of Krupki (the Minsk region).
Police buses with policemen in black uniform appeared in the town in crowded places last Friday and Saturday. As reported by locals, policemen were catching men and dragging them into police cars, Viasna human rights centre informs.
There were no reasons to detain people: the detainees did not commit any offences. There were no brawls. Most people were detained on Saturday night.
At 1 am, riot police break into "Dorozhnoye" café, where young people were having a party, and dragged scores of young men into police cars.
Witnesses say the police officers were accompanied by the local police department chief, Dzmitry Melnikau. After the raid in Krupki, police went to the culture centre in the village of Krupski, where young people have discos at weekends. Some young men were detained there.
About 40 detainees were guarded to the temporary detention facility in Krupki. Some of them were taken to the district court on Monday.
Many of the detained young men have marks of beating: bruises on faces. One of the detainees showed bruises on his back in court. Riot police explained that detainees had shown resistance to police officers, tried to tear off their shoulder straps and beaten their heads against the police buses unwilling to get inside.
One of the detained men, who graduated from Police Academy but was unable to work as a policeman, says: "My friend and I went to a shop to buy some water after a disco on Friday. People in black clothes break into the shop and behaved rudely, shoved other people. I made a remark and they guarded me to a police bus. There were several guys inside. We were ordered to lay face down on the ground. They beat us and intimidated saying they’d put a condom on a baton and rape us."
The former student of Police Academy was released on Monday: the court summoned a shop assistant who gave evidence in his favour.
The rest detainees were fined 700,000 rubles. They were accused of showing resistance to police officers or swearing in public. Witnesses were the riot policemen, who had earlier detained them. Some of the people detained are still in the temporary detention facility waiting for trials on Tuesday.
Residents of Krupki say they fear for their children now. The mother of a girl who saw the Saturday raid on men asked the judge: "How are we supposed to live now? You can permit your child to go to a disco, but you never know where you should look for her!" The judge did not answer.
