Investigators: Dozens policemen injured; riot participants face long prison sentences
The riots took place in Minsk and some other regions of the country, the Investigation Committee (IC) said on Monday.
The press service reports that the violations were accompanied by property destruction and resistance to the authorities. According to them, the protesters used of trash cans, benches, sticks, stones, fragments of paving tiles, glass bottles and flammable liquids as instruments of crime. CCTV footage has been seized for further investigation, the investigators add.
“There have been initiated criminal cases under different parts of the article on the organization of mass riots and participation in them. Criminal responsibility for these actions can be 8 and 15 years in prison, respectively,” said IC chairman Ivan Naskevich.
He also asked people ‘not to give in to provocations and calls for violation of public order’.
“Law enforcement agencies will take all possible measures to protect the constitutional order,” assured the law enforcement officer.
3,000 persons have been detained for participating in ‘unauthorised mass events’ in Belarus (a thousand – in Minsk); there are 50 injured, including 39 policemen, the Belarusian Interior Ministry said on Monday.
Human rights activists report about the victim of protests against the unfair vote count in the presidential elections in Belarus on August 9. An ambulance brigade could not save him. Nowever, the Belarusian authorities have not confirmed the fact of the death during Sunday’s protests.
