Belarusian Man Has Bullet That He Was Wounded With In 2020 Removed By Polish Doctors

• 4.10.2024, 10:24

A piece of shotgun pellet was stuck in his hand.

Polish doctors removed a piece of shotgun pellet from the hand of a Belarusian former political prisoner that had been there since 2020,MOST writes.

During the protests in 2020, Yahor Yaustratau was in a group that damaged the car of an Interior Ministry officer. He was in a closed chat, the participants of which foamed and painted the police officer's car. It turned out that this was a provocation, and the men came across an ambush set up by the law-enforcers.

During his arrest, Yahor was wounded by shotgun pellets from a pump-action shotgun. He later discovered about 18 wounds on his body.

Yaustratau was sentenced to three years and two months in prison. After serving his sentence, the man fled to Lithuania by swimming across a border river. There he asked for international protection. Lithuania handed him over to Poland in accordance with the Dublin Agreement — the Belarusian had a Polish visa.

This year, at the end of August, Yaustratau went to see a doctor in Białystok: a lump had formed deep under the skin on his arm, which was injured during his arrest. The surgeon examined him and concluded that a fragment was stuck there and that surgery would be required.

“I didn’t believe it and said that it was unlikely. In 2020, after my arrest, I was taken to the hospital, where they treated the wounds and stitched me up. I couldn’t imagine that I would have any fragments left. But I still decided to have surgery. And indeed, the doctor found a fragment in the form of a rubber ball, which was not found in Belarus,” the man says.

It is assumed that this fragment was not found in Belarus because his arm was very swollen at the time.