MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2020) The Belarusian opposition plans to take court action over the violent crackdown on protesters, Maria Kolesnikova, a senior opposition figure, said Sunday.
Kolesnikova, an ally of self-exiled former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and campaign chief of her rival, opposition politician Viktor Babaryko, made the announcement in a video posted online.
"We now demand an end to violence... None of those responsible for the violence has been punished, no cases have been opened, people have not been freed from custody. That's not how it should be, that's not right," she said.
"Tomorrow, we will file requests that criminal probes be launched into people's deaths, into every single incident of torture and illegal actions of the police," Kolesnikova added.
Thousands have been detained and two men have died during a week of protests that swept Belarus after its sitting president, Alexander Lukashenko, was declared the winner of last Sunday's election.
The Interior Ministry says more than 120 police officers were hurt in clashes. It argued that a man who died in Minsk on Monday was holding an explosive device he wanted to throw at the police when it went off. Footage of the protester's death that emerged over the weekend did not show that the protester had an explosive decide in his hand. The interior minister suggested he could have been killed by a "non-lethal weapon."
