The day after my release I went to the LODE clinic and asked to be examined by a surgeon
On my last day in Belarus I sent a complaint to the Prosecutor General's Office by registered mail. I had drafted it with the help of a lawyer from the Frunzensky district law office in Minsk. Through the Minsk city office of the Investigative Committee, my complaint was forwarded to the Leninsky district office of the Investigative Committee in Minsk
Since almost a month had passed, I decided to send an online inquiry to the Investigative Committee of Belarus and find out what was happening with my complaint
Marina Medvedeva, an investigator at the Leninsky district office of the Investigative Committee, contacted me on Viber. She asked how I got my injuries: how they beat me, where the blows landed, where they came from and where it all happened
On the advice of a lawyer I know, a former adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel, I decided to try to seek justice through the Israeli legal system
D. V. Gerasimenya, head of the Leninsky district office of the Investigative Committee, informed me that a preliminary inquiry was being conducted into the facts I had set out in my complaint and over the phone
I learned that my case had been given to a new investigator and decided to find out how I could contact him and pass on new information
Several testimonies and identifications from photos established that the torture had been directed by the chief of the Sovetsky district police department in Minsk, Sergei Kalinnik. I reported this to D. V. Gerasimenya.
A list of all the OMON officers in Minsk was leaked on a Telegram channel. Since they called each other by first names, nicknames and last names, I compared what the other victims and I remembered with these lists
I wrote to BYPOL describing what had happened to me and got an answer. It confirmed the information about the suspect Shabunya
An anonymous officer of the Sovetsky district police department gave me information based on my description. A little later other detainees confirmed from photos that Safonova had been in the inner courtyard on the night of August 10–11 and had taken part in the torture
In reply to yet another inquiry, I was told that my request to open a criminal case on the facts I had reported was refused.
After the Cyber Partisans' successful operation "Heat" in the summer of 2021, I got in touch with them, and from what was known at the time, they gave me the data I asked for on the suspected OMON officers and officers of the Sovetsky district police department
Over the course of a month I met with the victims who agreed to take part, and from the Cyber Partisans' extensive material they identified the punishers who had arrested us, tortured us at the Sovetsky district police department and taken us to Zhodino prison
At my request the Cyber Partisans gave me photos of all the female officers of the Sovetsky district police department. Besides M. V. Safonova, I identified Svetlana Nikitina, an inspector there
I sent the results of the investigation to every district office of the Investigative Committee in Belarus (about 150). A few of them even responded to my inquiry
At the invitation of the Lithuanian criminal police, I filed a complaint asking them to open a criminal case under universal jurisdiction.
Although the investigation has brought me fairly impressive results in identifying the punishers, I would still like to get more evidence, so that in the future I have more options, including under universal jurisdiction
