Syarhei Hryts: “I was hit in my right eye with a fist, my glasses were broken”

A photographer working for the Associated Press says how he was detained today near Frunzenski supermarket.

“I was hit in the right eye with a fist. My glasses were broken,” Syarhei Hryts says. His colleagues and he were brutally detained today during a picket organized by activists of Zmena youth organization, Nasha Niva newspaper reports.

“They dragged all activists and press representatives to a bus rudely. They snatched equipment out of hands. All attempts to find out who they were and why they were detaining the journalists were stopped brutally,” the photo correspondent says.

He says men in civvies took away cell phones from the people who wanted to make a call in the bus. All detainees were placed in the assembly hall in the police department. Policemen seized all equipment and left it on a table.

“I spent two hours in different offices. They didn't ask anything, just took my passport and probably figured out who I am,” Syarhei Hryts says.

The journalist and his colleagues were set free. No police reports were drawn against them. They received back their equipment, but photos of the picket were deleted.

Syarhei Hryts is considering how he should react to the incident and whether he should obtain a medical certificate confirming his injury.

We remind that activists of Zmena youth organization planned to carry out a picket near Frunzenski supermarket in Minsk calling to boycott the “election”.

The young man organized symbolic serving of borscht alluding to Yarmoshyna's well-known remark.

Men in civilian clothes attacked Zmena picketers and journalists and began to beat and detain them.

Photo by Reuters