"Chernobyl Way" is a street action organised by the Belarusian opposition annually since 1988 in Minsk in the format of the procession, which ends the rally. The exception was 2011, when the city authorities banned the action in the traditional form for the first time.
At this year’s rally, the authorities allowed the use of flags, signs and banners and also promised to prevent unjustified detentions. However, the authorities did not satisfy the petitioners’ request to allocate a separate strip of the traffic area for the march. The organizers of the event also failed to obtain assurances that the possibility of use of the sound-amplifying equipment at a rally in the park will be provided.
Nevertheless, the arrests could not be avoided. An hour before the start of the action, in the evening of 26 April environmental activists Iryna Sukhiy, Vasil Sinyuhin, Kanstantsin Kirylenka, Volha Kanavalava were arrested at the apartment of the chairman of the organization "Ekadom" Iryna Sukhiy and were released from the district police department only 3 hours later.
Anarchist Ihar Trukhanovich was also detained. During the arrest Trukhanovich was severely beaten and could not get up from the sidewalk. The activist was covered in blood, as he was beaten up by several people. Then, his bloodied body was thrown into a car and taken to the Soviet district police department (see the video). On 29 April the activist of anarchist movement Ihar Trukhanovich was sentenced to 10 days in jail.
Journalists of the newspaper "Nasha Niva" Iryna Orakhouskaya and Aksana Rudovich were detained while they were videotaping the beating up of Ihar Trukhanovich, also brought to the Soviet district police department and released after some time.
After the end of the action at 21:30 activists of the civil campaign "European Belarus" Aliaksandr Tarnahurski and Zmitser Charnyak were detained. Charnyak was sentenced to 10 day in jail
At 22.30 correspondents of "Radio Racja" Henadz Barbarych and Aliaksandr Yarashevich were arrested after the end of sanctioned by Minsk city authority action "Chernobyl Way",which they reported about. Both of the them had journalist certificate.Aliaksandr Yarashevich was sentenced to three days in jail on 29 April. Henadz Barbarych was also sentenced to three days in jail, but he said he would appeal against the verdict.
Viachaslau Dashkevich, a representative of the civil campaign "European Belarus", was sentenced to five days in jail. He was also arrested on 26 April after the "Chernobyl Way" action. He was charged with disobeying a police officer.
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