Journalists detained as police disperse memorial action in Minsk

The action was organized by the relatives of the deceased. They invited all who cared to gather in front of the church in Niamiha street and proceed towards the pretrial detention center in Valadarskaha street, carrying flowers and candles. They wanted to lay flowers near the prison walls and read prayes, and then proceed towards the Red Cathedral in Independence Square where the action would end.

According to Radio Svaboda, a police truck was spotted near the pretrial prison already at 1130. The participants of the action were detained at the crossing of Haradski Val and Niamiha streets. Police also detained journalists Aleh Hruzdzilovich (Radio Svaboda), Iryna Arakhouskaya and Hanna Badziaka (Nasha Niva). The leader of human rights group Platforma Andrei Bandarenka was also detained.

The journalists were walked aside and told to put their cameras down.

The detainees were takeb to Maskouski district police department.

Ihar Ptsichkin was 21 years old at the time of death. He had been sentenced to three days of arrest for driving a vehicle without a license. On July 30, he was placed at the pretrial detention center in Valadarskaha street to serve his sentence. He died on August 4.

Ihar Ptichkin's relatives found hard to trest the official version about the cause of death that suggested an abrut cardiac arrest. The relatives insisted they saw black and blue spots on the body of the deceased, claiming they could have been the traces of tortures.

The family of Ihar Ptsichkin was told by the chief of the pretrial detention center that on August 3 the young man suffered from a psychomotor agitation, promting the personnels to use soft belts to pacify him.