The Story Of A Brave Belarusian Girl With A Smile

The photo of a smiling girl, carried by riot policemen, went viral on the Internet.

Alena Lutskovich from the Kastrychnitski settlement was one of the first whom the riot policemen detained on March 25. The photo of a smiling girl, carried by the riot policemen, immediately went viral on the Internet, Euroradio reports.

Alena is a UCP member, and the action in Minsk wasn’t the first for her. Kastrychnitski settlement is located 200 km away from both Homel and Minsk, and Alena chose Minsk, where the most massive Freedom Day celebration was planned.

“I was prepared that they could beat me, — the girl laughs. — At first I was trying to get to Academy of Sciences area for a long time, before 2 p.m., as I was afraid I wouldn’t get there at all later. When I succeeded,I met the people I knew, everyone had such a festive mood. And then I took out my flag and put it on my shoulders. The riot policemen approached me and said I should leave. I said their demands were illegal so I would not go anywhere.

They immediately picked me up and dragged me into the paddy wagon. True, I was not ready for the fact that one policeman would take my hand, and the second would put his hands in, if you excuse me, between my legs to grab my leg. At that moment, which the photographers fixed, I told them that it would be enough to take me by the elbows: I’m not that big, I would go if pushed, I would have no other options. I don’t know why they took me under the arms, it was incomprehensible and ridiculous.

In the detention truck, they demanded I should take off the flag, saying stuff like, if you don’t we will take it off by ourselves and tear it to pieces. I refused, and no one beat me or tear the flag,”- the girl has told.

The detention truck took the “offenders” to the Lenin district police department. They were put on a “stretcher”. Alena spent 7 hours in the police department in total, together with other detainees. At about 9 p.m.the girl was released without charges.