Journalist Tatsiana Belashova: Akrestsina is a manmade hell
In the evening of May 10, Alena Shcharbinskaya, I, and another dozen people were loaded into a police van near Centralny police department, where we searched for information about our detained family members. Of course, the police did not explain, why they detained us.
We spent 2 days at Akrestsina detention center, without any police reports or trials. On the third day, 8 people from our company were suddenly released at 4 a.m., with a warning under article 23.34, as if they reprimanded us gently «do not get caught again». Since there is no police report or court decision on Alena’s case either, I really hope that she will be released today. There were long lines of people at the yard of Akrestsina center at night, and they released two people every few minutes. That took several hours. That is, they let a lot of people out, but seem to bring even more people in.
Akrestsina is a manmade hell. Police vans arrived every night, after midnight, and we heard from our cell many men screaming of pain, at once.
Every guy who was there can tell you about the procedure: the door of police van opens and one is to get out and run between the rows of policemen to the end of the huge yard, and they are hammering one’s back and neck with batons the entire time. After that, ambulances arrive and take some people away, while the others are registered and sent to cells.
In Akrestsina center, the guards treat people brutally, too, especially men, they go certainly go all out to humiliate people as much as possible. It is almost impossible to call an ambulance for the inmates. One of our cellmates had her tendons and muscles torn by a baton during detention. She was getting worse every day, today she was almost fainting and screaming in pain, but no one called the ambulance. .
I see, they now don’t keep people there for long — due to overcrowding, there is no time for police reports and trials, and they try to release people quickly, with a warning under article 23.34. Apparently, this time their goal is not to profit from fines, but to scare as many people as possible within the shortest time.
And a bit on the household business: a cell for four (about 10 sq. m.) there were 20 people on the first night , 35 — on the second, and 46 today. They gave us food only once in two days (for some girls it was once in three days). The temperature in the cell is about 30 degrees, the window is slightly open, but this does not help.
But one can hear all the messages from the people outside: their support, and what time it is, and booing at the police vans. Thank you for that. And thank you to those people who spend here all night and take the released people home — no stuff has been returned, and people come out without phones or money. They told me to come get my things when everything has calmed down, and if I was lucky, I’d find something. So maybe I wil never see my phone again. But the main thing is to get everyone out of there as soon as possible.
Thank you all again for your support. Hugs )