a man nearby. In September, minister of internal affairs, Yury Karayeu, offered the Belarusian parliament to legalize such practice in order to increase the security of the policemen. Defense lawyers reported obstruction by the government officials and violation of their rights, including intentional concealment of their clients' location and unannounced beginnings of trials. On 11 September, a judge of Zavodski District in Minsk, Zhanna Khvoinistskaya, stated in a judgment that having a contract with a lawyer was the evidence of guilt. Internal and international reactions On 14 August, Alexander Barsukov, the deputy minister of Internal Affairs, denied the employment of torture by the security forces. On 16 August, Yury Karayeu, the Minister of Internal Affairs, stated that all cases of abuse of authority were going to be investigated after the stabilization of the situation in the country. On 17 August, Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, admitted some of the Okrestina detainees were beaten, but noted that those were only the ones who attempted to attack the Okrestina staff. On 20 August, Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State, issued a statement condemning the violence used against peaceful protesters and abuse of the detainees. In a 21 August statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, it was noted that, despite the majority of the detainees being released, serious concerns about the missing protestors and the ones accused of criminal acts were still there. The statement underlined the lack of information about the detainees' status and called for immediate release of the unlawfully detained persons. See also List of deaths related to the 2020 Belarusian protests References External links Seeking Justice Stories of Violence in Belarus (book) 2020–2021 Belarusian protests Human rights abuses in Belarus