Police van to the district police department
I sat in the bus until 8 p.m. Then they beat the people they had arrested and moved them into a police van (avtozak).
They pulled the van up against the bus so that nobody in the windows of the nearby buildings could see what was being done to us. On August 9, I had watched detentions like this from a window myself. Now I know what they do to people in there.
You lock your hands behind your back and bend over so your head is as low as possible. They shout at you when to get out. On the way to the van you run the gauntlet: they beat you with batons, on the legs, on the stomach, and knee you in the gut.
They beat us and threw us into the van. On the left and right sides there are “cups”: cramped compartments that hold one person each. At the back is a compartment for 4 people, but 10 of us stood in it, pressed against each other. In the “cup” next to me I heard a woman screaming at the top of her lungs: “I'm having heart trouble, open up!” and the “OMON officers” laughed and swore back at her.
We drove for about 20–25 minutes, with stops where more detainees were added. I turned on my phone and texted a journalist I knew, asking him to inform the Israeli embassy in Minsk that I had been detained.
I also decided to delete all my social media apps from the phone so the punishers couldn't use them to set me up.
According to the findings of a private investigation, the detainees were most likely beaten on the way from the bus to the van by OMON officers from the 6th platoon of the 2nd operational company, headed by police Major Andrey Mikhailovich Slyunkov.
| Rank | Full name | Position |
|---|---|---|
| senior lieutenant | Vitaly Vasilyevich Svetkin | group commander |
| captain | Vitaly Anatolyevich Sushchits | group commander |
| senior warrant officer | Roman Sergeevich Zherdetsky | squad leader |
| warrant officer | Igor Alexandrovich Monakhov | squad leader |
| warrant officer | Roman Sergeevich Torik | squad leader |
| senior warrant officer | Alexander Valeryevich Yakimchik | squad leader |
| major | Andrey Mikhailovich Slyunkov | commander |
| senior sergeant | Artyom Sergeevich Bakhanovich | police officer |
| senior sergeant | Dmitry Igorevich Garelko | police officer |
| warrant officer | Alexander Mikhailovich Goncharenok | police officer |
| sergeant major | Yevgeny Nikolaevich Dudkin | police officer |
| sergeant | Sergei Yuryevich Kleshchenok | police officer |
| senior sergeant | Kirill Nikolaevich Kozodoy | police officer |
| warrant officer | Sergei Viktorovich Pimenov | police officer |
| sergeant | Nikolai Sergeevich Ulasovich | police officer |
| senior sergeant | Anton Maratovich Chebykin | police officer |
| warrant officer | Alexei Andreevich Mitin | police driver |
| warrant officer | Andrey Alexandrovich Suvorov | police driver |
While I was going through the "baton corridor," I received the following injuries:
- from a baton blow, contused wounds of the right upper arm and shoulder:
- right upper arm: linear abrasion up to 5 cm, scabbed over, moderate swelling, no redness
- right shoulder: hematoma 6 × 4 cm, not tense, not pulsating, tender
- from a blow, a hematoma 8 × 4 cm on the inner surface of the upper third of the right thigh, tender, not tense, pulsating
 |  |  |
- I dodged one baton blow, and I also got kneed in the gut
