"Gennady was the bluest." How an ex-lieutenant colonel was beaten for participating in protests

It was there that he was met by former journalist and political prisoner Ihar Karnei. They slept side by side on the concrete floor, squeezed between other prisoners. Karnei recalled his former cellmate in a fragment of his upcoming book.

"He repeated that he would never forgive"

On July 17, 2023, after a search, detention, and interrogation, Ihar Karnei ended up in the Akrestina detention center. The punishment cell, designed for one person, was overcrowded: ten prisoners were held in five and a half square meters.

Some had traces of beatings on their bodies. But according to Karnei's recollections, Gennady looked the most injured:

"Gennady was the bluest, clutching his broken ribs with a painful grimace with every breath."

According to what Moiseichik recounted in the cell, he was detained by a whole bus of "cosmonauts" (riot police). During the detention, the security forces beat his son, and when the father rushed to defend him, they started beating Moiseichik himself — with batons, feet, and fists.

"He repeated that he would never forgive — they also severely beat his defenseless disabled son," Ihar Karnei recalls his cellmate's stories.

Afterwards, the beating continued in the building of the District Department of Internal Affairs, in the very office where Moiseichik himself once worked.

More than twenty years in the police

Gennady Moiseichik was born on May 25, 1974, and joined the police no later than 1994. Most of his career, according to information from Belpol databases, was connected with public order protection and work with minors.

In August 1994, Moiseichik worked as a district inspector at the Leninski District Department of Internal Affairs in Minsk. A year later, he transferred to the inspection for juvenile affairs. He was a district inspector, then a senior district inspector, and in 2001, he headed the inspection for juvenile affairs at the Leninski District Department of Internal Affairs.

Later, Moiseichik transferred to the Maskouski District Department of Internal Affairs. By early 2015, he held the position of deputy head of the public order and prevention department and had the rank of police lieutenant colonel.

He was dismissed from work in June 2015. The databases record that the reason was absenteeism.

In the archive of the Maskouski District administration website, his comment on domestic violence was preserved. On behalf of the police, Moiseichik urged victims not to keep silent and warned that family conflicts could end in particularly serious crimes.

"No family violence can be justified," that publication stated.

Gena had his nasal septum broken

According to Ihar Karnei's account, in 2020, Gennady Moiseichik participated in protests. He was allegedly captured by video cameras, but the former policeman was only apprehended three years later: he was detained in Minsk on July 12, 2023.

Five days after Moiseichik's detention, Ihar Karnei ended up in the same punishment cell at Akrestina. "Gena, apparently, also had his nasal septum broken, snoring at the highest decibels," he recalls.

According to Karnei, after Akrestina, Moiseichik was sent to Zhodzina, and later the cellmates met again at Valadarka.

On September 21, 2023, the Pervomaiski District Court of Minsk found Gennady Moiseichik guilty under the popular Article 342 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to three years of restricted freedom (colloquially known as "home chemistry").

Stripped of rank a year later

But the story did not end with the verdict. In November 2024, Moiseichik's name appeared in Lukashenka's decree on stripping former security officials of military and special ranks.

The authorities stated that the people on the list committed actions in 2020 that were "incompatible with the status of a serviceman." Gennady Moiseichik was stripped of his rank as a police lieutenant colonel in reserve.

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