Pinsk man with disability taken to ER from detention

December 15, BPN. Police arrested Pinsk resident Mikałaj Klimovič for sharing an anti-war post on social media, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin was compared to Hitler.

Klimovič has a disability after heart surgery and a stroke in May. Authorities placed him in a temporary detention facility pending trial but he was hospitalized as his condition worsened in custody.

“I shared the post at 1 p.m.,” he told BPN. “It said, ‘Fascists are those who attack foreign countries, not those who defend their homeland.’ Putin was wearing an SS uniform [on the picture], with a swastika at the back. They pounced on it.” Police knocked on his door two hours later, he said.

Policemen tried to force Klimovič to film a “confession” video, but he denied guilt. “I said that I reposted it because I opposed the war and what I had published was antiwar,” he noted.

Police took Klimovič from one police station to another late in the evening and refused to call an ambulance despite his complaints of feeling unwell.

“I couldn’t call my family, I couldn’t tell them that I was arrested”, he said. “Then they took me to the temporary detention center’s basement and twisted my arms while handcuffing me. Since I suffered a stroke on May 1, my hands started to hurt badly, as if boiling water was poured on them. The handcuffs squeezed my hands so tightly that I still have bruises.”

Klimovič complained about severe headache and heart pain. “[They] decided to call for an ambulance,” he said. “The doctors checked my blood pressure, it was 190/100. I had big problems with my heart. They gave me a shot and took me to a hospital where I got first aid. They [doctors] said that otherwise, I wouldn’t survive until the next morning because of heart issues,” Klimovič said.

He was discharged on December 14 and told to appear in court on December 23. Authorities accuse him of sharing extremist content.

“How can these messages be extremist if I am against the war?” Klimovič wondered. “I have many family members living in Ukraine. I can’t contact them by phone . . . I am worried about them . . . I am pro-Ukraine.”