Two and a half years after the massive protests against the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko in the summer of 2020, the International Committee for the Investigation of Torture of Belarus published a public investigation which describes the inhuman conditions of detention in Okrestina. This detention camp located in Minsk hosted thousands of detainees from the ranks of opponents of the regime.
Beatings, deprivation of water, food, people crammed into overcrowded cells… The International Committee for the Investigation of Torture collected the testimonies of 101 people who passed through Okrestina between August 9 and 14, 2020, at the height of crackdown on anti-Lukashenko protesters.
The detention center supposed to accommodate up to 110 people saw more than 3,000 pass through during these five days. According to the testimonies collected, the cells were so full that it was difficult to breathe there. For lack of space, people had to spend the night in the courtyard.
Crimes against humanity
A former detainee says his group spent more than an hour kneeling on a concrete floor, hands behind their backs, before being ordered to crawl under the blows of truncheons. A man beaten in the crotch remembers that when asked: “ Why are you beating me he was answered: So you can’t breed people like you anymore “.
Witnesses recount the excruciating screams and the sounds of bone cracking. The rapporteurs note that from the point of view of international criminal law, these acts of violence can be qualified as crimes against humanity. The testimonies made it possible to identify thirteen people involved in the acts of torture, including the director of the detention center, who is still in office.
► To read also: Torture massively used in Belarus, according to several NGOs