We were beaten brutally as police detained us (Video)

• 23.05.2012, 10:52

Mikalai Dzemidzenka, who is at hospital now, says how he was detained.

“We were knocked down and beaten brutally. Raman Vasilyeu was beaten especially cruelly,” he said in an interview to Radio Svaboda.

An activist of European Belarus civil campaign, Andrei Mauchan, was beaten on Saturday. He raised a white-red-white flag to support Kavalenka. How can police brutality be explained?

It wasn't the first beating. I know that our activist Raman Pratasevich was beaten for a white-red-white flag when we were in custody. This is a position of the authorities. They don't just arrest, they beat, because white-red-white flags seem to make them nervous.

Do they beat because they have an order or because they feel all-permissiveness?

I see personal all-permissiveness, especially in relation to youth activists, because the country lacks progress in even slight liberalization. The authorities make no concessions; there's a strong confrontation between the West and Belarus and a strong confrontation among political opponents.

We remind on May 15, the Tsentralny district court sentenced Young Front deputy head Mikalai Dzemidzenka to ten days in custody for alleged “disorderly conduct”.

The day before, police burst into Young Front activists' flat, beat them and took to the Frunsenski district police department. Besides Mikalai, activists Dzmitry Kramyanetski and Raman Vasilyeu were detained.

Mikalai Dzemidzenka was guarded from a detention centre in Akrestin Street to hospital No. 9 in early hours of May 22.