“Not to be seen, I was taken somewhere round the corner. Two men were holding me putting an armlock on. Another man was kicking me on the head and legs, and two plain cloth policemen were standing behind to prevent anybody from noticing what is going on,” Raman Pratasevich, the under-aged member of Young Front organisation says.
On May 17, 2012 Raman Pratasevich hang out a national white-red-white flag on the building situated at the crossing of Lenin street and the Independence Square, not far from the presidential administration. On his way back plain cloth policemen sprung a mine on Raman.
“As soon as I jumped off a fire escape after hanging out the flag I received a heavy blow on my back. They stroke me down to the pavement and put an armlock on me,” Raman Pratasevich told Belsat TV. The boy was beaten in the street, then he was pulled into the car, where policemen continued hitting him. “They were keeping me about 30 minutes kicking a bit, then threw me into a common “bobik” [a police car – Belsat] and drove me to the Leninski district directorate of internal affairs, where I had to stay more than 4 hours, ” the young man adds.
While keeping the Young Front member in the car the plain cloth policemen were at loss to decide who would climb a fire escape and take the flag away. “They were arguing for 20 or 30 mintutes: no one wanted to get upon the roof because all of them were afraid to, ” Raman Pratasevich laughs.
Belsat
