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English

Police break up demonstration for election boycott in Minsk, grab activists, reporters

 

Police in civilian clothes broke up a demonstration for an election boycott in Minsk on Tuesday, violently grabbing opposition activists and journalists who were covering the event, BelaPAN said.



The athletic men jumped out of a bus and swooped on the members of the "Tell the Truth!" movement and reporters minutes after the demonstration began near the Frunzenski supermarket on the western outskirts of the Belarusian capital.

The opposition activists had planned to pass out borsch to mock a notorious remark by Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, who suggested following the 2010 presidential election that women should stay at home and cook the soup instead of attending street protests.

The activists and reporters were bundled into an unmarked bus without license plates. Some of the reporters were said to be injured, while Associated Press photographer Syarhey Hryts had his glasses broken during the arrest.



Those arrested included "Tell the Truth!" activists Pavel Vinahradaw and Alyaksandr Artsybashaw, as well as Mr. Hryts, photographers Vasil Fedasenka and Tatsyana Zyankovich, BelaPAN cameraman Pavel Padabed, journalist Alyaksandr Barazenka and a crew of the German television channel ZDF. They were brought to the Frunzenski district police station.

The reporters were released without charges a few hours later. Police erased all pictures and videos related to the demonstration from their cameras.

It was not immediately known whether Messrs. Vinahradaw and Artsybashaw had been charged.

Andrey Bastunets, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, condemned the violent arrest of the reporters as a "criminal offense."

"The reporters were doing their work, they had the full right to cover the demonstration," he said, adding that the plainclothesmen should be charged with "interference with the journalist's lawful professional activity" under Article 198 of the Criminal Code.

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