A lieutenant of the Minsk police is charged with abuse of power.
The main internal security directorate of the Interior Ministry paid attention to activities of a police officer from Minsk's Frunsenski district police department. The officer had been working for the police since 2007 and got promoted to an inspector on duty at city police department No. 3.
The internal security directorate got interested in the 25-year-old police officer after he forced two women, who came from the Hrodna region to Minsk to work as prostitutes, to service him for free. The practice of providing free services in exchange for protection is called a "subbotnik", like a day of free labour in the USSR. The lieutenant said to the women he was an officer of the morality human trafficking unit and demanded free services from the prostitutes for a promise to close eyes to their activity, Yezhednevnik reports.
An additional inquiry revealed that not two, but more than 10 women were involved. Results of the inquiry were sent to the Minsk's department of the Investigation Committee. The Committee initiated a criminal case for violating part 2 of article 424 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (abuse of power). The police officer may face up to 10 years in prison. The lieutenant was sacked from the police for discrediting the image of a law-enforcement officer. Taking into account the delicate character of the crime and the fact that no one suffered except for the image of the police, the police officer was set free until trial.
