Artur Komenko, an entrepreneur from Minsk, claims that police beat him with fists and truncheons after he was arrested on the fourth night of mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
They then stripped him of his underwear and threatened to rape him with a baton, before beating him and forcing him to kneel on the floor handcuffed for four hours, he told Reuters.
Komenko spent most of the following week in a hospital in Minsk with headaches and partial hearing loss in one ear.
The hospital declined to comment on the allegations.
Doctors diagnosed a brain injury, concussion and bruising to the head and body, according to a medical report seen by Reuters.
"I didn't think something like this was possible in Europe in the 21st century. "Some countries are making cars that don't need to be driven, they are preparing to send spacecraft to Mars, and here they are maiming and killing people," said this 47-year-old father of four.
Komenko filed a complaint with the police, and the British agency had access to a report issued by an official of the Investigative Committee, which deals with investigations into serious crimes.
The official advised Komenko to see a medical specialist to assess the extent of his injuries. Komenko says he has done so, but has not received feedback on when the case will be opened.
His case is not alone.
Valentin Stefanovič, deputy head of the human rights group Proljeće, said 500 cases of police torture have been identified across the former Soviet republic since Lukashenka declared victory in the disputed August 9 election.
The Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee did not respond to requests for comment on specific injuries sustained by protesters interviewed by Reuters reporters who claim they were abused.
When asked whether cases will be opened against the police, the spokesperson of the board said that they have carefully considered all the allegations, but that they have not yet identified any case of police torture that deserves a criminal investigation.
New complaints are still coming in, he added.
The board said that on August 17, 700 people filed complaints about physical injuries they claim they suffered while in police custody.
UN human rights investigators said on September 1 that they had received reports of hundreds of cases of torture, beatings and ill-treatment of anti-government protesters by Belarusian police and called on the authorities to stop such abuse.
Interior Minister Juri Karajev told state television on Sunday that 30 members of the security forces are still in hospital with serious injuries.
"They talk about the cruelty of the Belarusian police, and I would like to say the following: there is no police in the world that is more humane and moderate than this one."
Lukashenko also praises the work of the police.
On August 13, he signed a decree awarding "exceptional service" medals to about 300 members of the security forces, including members of riot squads, police van drivers and prison guards. On August 17, he said that some protesters taken to the Okrestin detention center in Minsk attacked the police. He did not present any evidence for these claims.
Doctors at the emergency room in Minsk told Reuters that they treated one person who claimed she had been raped with a baton.
"This will not meet with approval, but I will say it anyway: the people who got away with it in Okrestina are the ones who attacked the policemen. You know who I'm talking about," he told the assembled workers at the MZKT factory in Minsk.
Olga Čemodanova, an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose jurisdiction is the center in Okrestina, said that she could not rule out the possibility that such attacks had taken place, but that it was a matter for the Investigative Committee.
Komenko said that the police took him into custody after they stopped him on the street and saw a picture of a red and white flag on his phone, which is a symbol of protest. He said that he set up a police station, but that he did not participate in the protests.
Reuters spoke to 12 Belarusians who claim they were abused by the police while in custody.
The medical documents of the six of them show a series of injuries ranging from external to internal bruises, brain injuries, concussions, fractures and knee injuries.
Three doctors in an emergency room in Minsk, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters that they had received one person with rectal damage.
Two doctors said that the patient, whose identity they did not reveal, said that he was raped with a baton.
Vladimir Rodchenko, a 32-year-old programmer, said he was detained on August 12 for carrying a photo of a child injured during protests in the western city of Grodno. Local media reported that the police were investigating the incident.
Rodchenko claims that the police persistently beat him with batons on his buttocks and right leg when he arrived at the police station, and on his arms, legs and stomach during interrogation.
He said that after that he could not walk and that he was taken to the hall where he and the other arrested persons had to kneel with their faces facing the floor. He spent eight days in a hospital in Grodno and filed an official complaint demanding the opening of a criminal investigation.
Reuters has seen the decree of the official of the Investigative Committee, which, as in the case of Komenko, demanded that Rodchenko undergo a medical examination. He claims that he did that, but that he has not yet received information on whether the case will be opened.
Kolesnikova tore up her passport to avoid deportation
After she tore up her passport to prevent being deported from the country, Belarusian oppositionist Maria Kolesnikova was detained and taken to an unknown location, the media reported yesterday.
On Monday, masked men kidnapped Kolesnikova in the center of Minsk and drove away in a van. At the same time, two of her colleagues were reported missing.
Three activists were brought to the Aleksandrovka border crossing with Ukraine early Tuesday morning.
Kolesnikova refused to cross the border and deliberately tore up her passport, local sources said.
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko said that "that brave woman did not allow the Belarusian special services to expel her to the territory of Ukraine."
"All responsibility for her life and health lies with Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator," Gerashchenko told Reuters.
Yesterday, it was not known where Kolesnikova was taken after the incident at the border.
Two other kidnapped opposition members, Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov, entered the territory of Ukraine in the early hours of the morning yesterday, the border service announced.
"Kolesnikova is in custody, I can't say specifically where she is, but she is in detention," Anton Bichkovski, a representative of the Belarusian border service, told Reuters.
In a statement to The Guardian before her abduction, Kolesnikova spoke of being mistreated by the authorities, including being followed and stalked outside campaign headquarters.
"I don't pay attention, because if I did, I would have left Belarus three months ago. In May I made the decision to stay. I have no illusions about the country in which I made that decision.
Shortly after the incident at the border, Lukashenko said in an interview to a group of Russian journalists, including Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of "Russia Today", that if his regime falls, Russia will be next.
"You know what was concluded with the leadership and the Russian authorities? If Belarus falls, Russia will be next," Lukashenko said, as reported by the Ria Novosti agency.
He said that he will not retire, but admitted that he may have been in power too long.
"Perhaps I sat in the presidential chair for too long," Lukashenko said. "But I am the only one who can protect Belarusians now. I won't just leave. I have been building Belarus for a quarter of a century, I will not give up. After all, if I leave, my supporters will massacre," said Lukashenko without explaining such claims.
Reuters reports that Lukashenko said during the interview that he was open to the possibility of holding new elections, but that he rejected dialogue with the opposition, saying that everything "they propose is disastrous for Belarus and the Belarusian people."
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