Russian citizen captured by Belarusian authorities told about tortures in Minsk detention center

According to Novaya Gazeta, Yegor Dudnikov was detained on May 5 in Minsk. The Belarusian authorities accused him of "organizing group actions that grossly violate public order and are associated with obvious disobedience to the lawful demands of the authorities, which entailed disruption of the work of transport and enterprises" (part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus). He faces up to three years in prison.

According to Yegor's family, he had nothing to do with the protests: he came to Minsk to live with his girlfriend. In Minsk, he moonlighted as voice acting for cartoons, video games and advertising videos.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry, after a long silence, announced that it had sent a consul to Dudnikov - this was the only thing the Russian side could help with", - the message says.

It was possible to find out about the real state of affairs and the methods of the Belarusian security forces to obtain "confessions" from the detainee thanks to a note sent by Yegor from the pre-trial detention center.

Dudnikov wrote that during the arrest he was severely beaten by the officers of the GUBOP (General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime - editor's note): “they did not spare their hands - they kicked and punched me during the arrest. They shouted: "Scum, now you finally've got it?" Everything in my eyes darkened".

The security officials accused him of allegedly administering the opposition telegram channel “Civil Self-Defense Units of Belarus”.

After the search, they put a bag over his head and took the prisoner to a car.

“They threw me into the back seat in the car, my hands were constantly in handcuffs. They said they would go to bury me", - the Dozhd TV channel quotes the text of Dudnikov's note.

He was advised to say everything they need to on camera - then he would allegedly be deported home. In case of refusal, they "beat hard".

In the KGB building, interrogations were carried out without a lawyer, during which he was forced to give access to telephones and was forced to read out a text previously invented for him on paper. For refusal, they kicked me in the chest. If he does not obey, the security forces threatened to "come to his girlfriend."

The interrogations of the prisoner were filmed, over and over again forcing him to repeat the memorized text.

For the first time, Dudnikov was detained in Minsk in October last year, when he stood up for a child whom they wanted to detain. He then managed to avoid arrest only due to the fact that during the beatings he "became ill with his heart" and he was hospitalized.