Belarusian jailed for protesting and pushing to plead guilty slits his throat in front of judge

Belarusian prisoner detained last year as part of crackdown on opposition marches cut his neck during a hearing in Minsk this Tuesday, after learning that his family and neighbors would be tried if he didn’t plead guilty, Belarusian media reported.

The images of Radio Svaboda they showed Stepan Latypov lying on a wooden bench inside a prison cage in the courtroom, with police standing beside him and passers-by shouting.

A second video showed Latypov being taken in a waiting ambulance with what appeared to be blood stains on your shirt. Local media and human rights group Viasna-96 said he was still alive.

Belarusian activist and political prisoner Stsiapan Latypau he cut his neck today in the courtroomExiled opponent Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya wrote on Twitter, adding: “They threatened to persecute his family if he didn’t admit his guilt. It is the result of state terror, repression and torture in Belarus. We must stop it immediately“.

Nearby guards could not immediately open the prisoner’s cage because they did not have the right keys, independent media reported Nasha niva. “When the cell was opened, Stepan had already passed out,” he said.

Latypov fue arrested last September during the intensification of security measures taken by President Alexander Lukashenko against mass protests after the controversial elections of the previous month.

He was arrested in a court in Minsk which became known to some residents and local media as the “Plaza del Cambio”.

Latypov had stood there in front of a fresco to trying to prevent state agents, accompanied by the police, from erasing opposition graffiti.

He was accused of organize riots, resist the police and commit fraud, and was also accused on state television of plan police poisoning. Denies committing a crime.

Lukashenko’s government drew condemnation from the West late last month, when a 26-year-old dissident blogger was arrested after Belarusian authorities landed a Ryanair plane traveling from Greece to Lithuania on May 23.

(With information from Reuters)

KEEP READING: