Courtesy: Charter '97


Goalkeeper of IOF Norvegian club in Minsk jail for more than a month

The citizen of Cameroon was detained before a match allegedly for falsification of documents.

The migration service of Minsk-2 airport detained him on a suspension of passport forgery. Viasna human rights group received a letter from the detainee’s girlfriend Spaniard Inmaculada Gonzalez, who asked the human rights activists to clear up the fate of the Cameroonian.

She writes that Guy Francois Toukam has a residence permit in Spain, but received a proposal was play futsal in a NOrvegian club IOF (Oslo). The team arrived in Minsk on June 1 for a match at UEFA Futsal Championship cup series. The player was detained at the airport by militia because his passport looked very old. I know exactly was passport is valid, as Toukam applied to the Emabssy of Cameroon in Madrid in early summer 2009 and extended the passport until 2011. I need your help to find my friend. I need to know where he is, in what conditions he is. I ask you to learn about his health and tell me, and help to defend his rights for legal protection and fair trial. Please, help me! Inmaculada Gonzalez.”

The human rights activist found out that Guy Francois Toukam is really in custody in Minsk suspected of passport forgery. A request from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the embassy of Cameroon in Moscow, the nearest country’s embassy, was sent to identify his personality. The Embassy hasn’t replied yet.

On June 4, teams “Okhrana Minsk” (Minsk) and IOF (Oslo) played a match as part of the XX UEFS Champions Cup. The Belarusian won 10-1. Goalkeeper Guy Francois Toukam couldn’t take part in the match, as he was in jail in Akrestsin Street.

Human rights defender Valyantsin Stefanovich knows the situation and describes administrative detention of foreigners as a great problem for them:

“People can stay in special dentition facilities for some months. Conditions there are equal for all inmates, both Belarusians and foreigners. The center of isolation of offenders is known for very bad conditions. Foreigners often don’t know languages, don’t have legal assistance. They are left alone with their problems, their embassies can be situated ten of thousands of kilometers. In such cases, the Belarusian services had to wait so long for official confirmation of personality and financial ability. This is really a big problem, because Belarusian human rights activists do not have access to detention facilities and are not able to render qualified legal assistance.”

Considering how awful it can be to be isolated in a foreign country, without legal assistance, necessary things, friends, and knowledge of the country’s language, the human rights activists passed the detainee health aids, office supplies, drinking water, which is allowed by the legislation. They also reached his friends in Spain in order the Embassy of Cameroon in Spain could accelerate replying to the request of the Belarusian Ministry.



Courtesy: Charter '97


Cameroon football player: After 40 days in Belarusian prison I wanted to kill myself

Cameroon national Guy Francois Toukam in his interview to the European Radio for Belarus told about the incarceration conditions in Minsk remand prison, beating, prison food, racist jokes of his cellmates.

A 28-year-old Guy Francois Toukam, a goalkeeper from, Cameroon who lives in Europe and has a permanent resident card of Spain. He arrived to Minsk on June 1 to play to play for the Norwegian futsal club IOF at a match of the European championship on futsal. However, he was detained in the Minsk airport on suspicion in the forgery of his passport.

44 days passed after Belarusian services found out that both the Cameroonian passport and Spain’s permanent resident card of Guy Francois Toukam are authentic. All that time the Cameroonian stays in the remand prison in Akrestsin Street.

A week ago he arrived back home to Spain, attenuated by hunger and with sores from a plank bed on his skin. He was met by his significant other, Inmaculada González García, who had been fighting for the rights of her fiancé all the time. The European Radio for Belarus reached them on the phone.

How the story of your detention started?
I am a citizen of Cameroon, but I live in Spain, and I have a residence permit in Spain. I arrived from Norway to play football in Minsk. A woman passport officer took my passport in the airport and said: it is not your picture, it’s your brother. I showed my Spanish permanent resident card. I said: if I have a European document, how could I take my brother’s passport to fly here?
Questioning started, we were asked to go upstairs. Then I was told documents were not valid. I tried to explain in English, but they did not understand me. Or they pretended that they did not understand. Maybe they wanted to receive money from me.


Was there a trail? Have you been offered services of an interpreter, a lawyer?
There was no trial! Some woman asked me a few questions in English on the 4th day of my stay in the airport. Then immediately they took me to a car and we travelled to the place where I have spent all that time. I said: I need a lawyer; I want to see my case! They said: there is no lawyer, shut up and follow us!

After a few weeks of incarceration I was asked through an interpreter where I had money to pay for my incarceration. They said, I owed $250. They told me to call my girl and ask her to remit money. As a result, she sent the money, and the money for a plane ticket, it was paid by Spanish consul.


Tell about incarceration conditions in Akrestsin Street.
There is absolutely no respect to people there. Foreigners have no rights. Even criminals have a right to take shower, to make phone calls. A shower is allowed once a week only, and only in case you are insisting, demanding that. I have spent 44 days without walks. All my personal things were seized. There were no beds, people slept on wooden plank beds.

Foreign citizens are not kept separately, they are placed together with others, with homeless and mentally ill persons. There are obviously ill persons among prisoners. Some people stay in prison in this way for 7-8 months, and when they are released and allowed to go outside, they simply cannot walk!


What was the food, and how many meals did you have there?
The food we were given there is simply unsuitable for humans. What they call soup is simply salty water with something I cannot identify. They throw a spoon into the plate, that’s all! And they give a slice of wheat-bread. For about 40 days I was just drinking tea and eating wheat-bread. They do not give drinking water, they have only tap water of bad quality. I reduced by about 20 kilograms during incarceration term.


Were you allowed to make phone calls home, receive letters from family?
No. Belarusian human rights activists passed a parcel with some things to me soap, a book…), but the letter from my girlfriend was not allowed. Only after I was released, I read it getting abroad.


How ware you treated by wardens?
They often threatened to me! On the 37th day of detention I refused to eat and drink, and in a few days I demanded to call in a doctor. Then two officers beaten me. I tried to ask them what for I was kept in such conditions. They did not understand what I was saying, and started to swear. They said not to find faults, or the situation would turn to the worse.


Who were your cellmates, and what relations did you have?
There were 9 persons there: from Ukraine, Russia. There were racist jokes every day, they uttered threats to me all the time. I was happy that there was a guy from Moldova there as well, he spoke English. He helped me to talk to wardens. And when he was released, I could not talk to them at all – they do not understand foreign languages. I gesticulated. I even started to think that it was the end of my life. After 4 days of incarceration thoughts to kill myself started to come to me.


Will you come to Belarus again, for instance, for a football game?
No, I will not go either to Belarus, or to Russia, or Ukraine. With all my respect to the country, having such a bitter experience… I convey my greatest compliments to Belarusian human rights activists, who helped me, brought soap, water, books and some other things to me! I urge them not to stop, to continue their fight! As there are people there who are simply dying! After half a year spent in such an imprisonment, they can hardly walk: they lose strength, eyesight…


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com