21-year-old man died in Minsk detention centre

Inmate Ihar Ptichkin died in detention facility No. 1 in Minsk on August 4.

The Zavadski district court sentenced the Minsk resident to two months in detention over article 417 of the Criminal Code. Ihar Ptichkin was found guilty of driving without a licence. Two years ago, his driving licence was suspended for five years.

Ihar Ptichkin admitted his guilt at the trial. Having come to the Zavadski district police department on July 30 he was transferred to detention facility No. 1 in Valadarski Street in Minsk to serve his term.

Ihar Ptichkin's mother received a phone call from prison officers four days later. They said her son had died. According to them, the young man, who had never had serious health problems, died of cardiac arrest. Without his mother's consent, Ptichkin's body was taken to the morgue for autopsy. Later during the identification procedure relatives saw numerous bruises and injuries all over his body. Fractured ribs were seen with the naked eye and handcuff marks and open wounds could be noticed on his wrists.

Ptichkin's relatives couldn't receive the death certificate and the autopsy report for no reasons. Zhanna Ptichkina, Ihar's mother, told charter97.org that she was promised to receive the documents later. She doesn't believe the cause of the death was natural.

"Prison officers told me he had been an alcoholic and a drug addict. They say he attacked people. It's not true. Our neighbour know Ihar well. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He grew up without a father and worked since 15," the woman says.

She added that prison officers didn't said the exact time of Ihar's death.

"They called me on August 4 and said that my son had died and that I had to go to the detention facility. A prison officer said he had died at 6 in the morning, but another officer said it was at 8:45. They made me sign a document saying the body was released to me, but it was in the morgue. I went to the morgue. A morgue employee didn't tell me anything, because she talked to an investigator some minutes before," Zhanna Ptichkina said.

Funeral of Ihar Ptichkin take place today. His mother is going to investigate his death and learn the truth.

Attention! Shocking photos.

It is not the first case of violent deaths of inmates in Minsk's detention facility No. 1.

An inmates who now serves term in a Belarusian correctional colony earlier wrote about a tragic event on the afternoon of June 11, 2010, when an inmate died after being beaten by prison officers.