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Disciplinary action taken against policemen over detention of State Control Committee officer

Disciplinary action has been taken against several officers of Homyel’s Savetski district police department after they detained an officer of the State Control Committee (SCC) following his scuffle with a taxi driver.

The officers were given reprimands by the chief of the district police department in pursuance of a probe by the department’s internal security unit, which accused the policemen of failing to establish the identity of the SCC officer, Aleh Aleksandrowski, on the spot and "putting his life and health at risk" by not allowing him to put on warm clothes before taking him to the police station.

On December 1, a district judge in Homyel sentenced Mr. Aleksandrowski, chief of the internal security unit at the SCC Financial Investigations Department for the Homyel region, to a fine of 350,000 rubels ($41) in a closed-door trial on a charge of insulting the taxi driver.

The taxi driver, as well as the policemen, witnesses in the case, refused to comment to reporters who gathered outside the city’s Savetski District Court on the trial, saying that they had been prohibited from talking to the media.

When the trial began on November 16, Mr. Aleksandrowski asked the judge to hold it behind close doors, pointing to his “high social status.” The judge granted the request.

Before the trial, the policemen told BelaPAN that the incident involving Mr. Aleksandrowski and the driver occurred late on October 6.

The officers reportedly received a call from the driver who said that a man had refused to pay for a ride. When the police arrived at the scene, the man had already been inside his apartment. Together with the driver they went into the house. The man reportedly showered the police with insults and threatened them with violence, prompting the officers to call for assistance. Arriving officers helped bring the man to the Savetski district police department.

Later, the SCC officer filed an application with the Homyel Regional Prosecutor’s Office, where he previously worked as an investigator, asking it to open a power abuse case against the police. The probe is scheduled to be over on January 8, 2012.

After his trial, Mr. Aleksandrowski filed an appeal against the fine with the Hrodna Regional Court.