MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2020) Protesters were burning fires on one of Minsk streets late on Sunday night, the Belarusian state-run news agency Belta reported on its Telegram channel.
"Protesters lit fires in Syerabranka [a neighborhood in the Belarusian capital], in the center of the crossroads," Belta said.
According to the news agency, drivers were forced to take a different route in order to avoid the fires.
Natalia Hanusevich, a spokeswoman for the police department of the Minsk City Executive Committee, told Sputnik on Sunday that law enforcement officers had to use water cannons and stun grenades against participants of an unauthorized rally in the Belarusian capital on Sunday. According to Hanusevich, over 20 protesters were detained.
Sputnik Belarus photojournalist Viktor Tolochko was detained twice on Sunday while covering the unsanctioned rally in Minsk. RIA Novosti correspondent Sergey Popov was also detained and released. Police said that the detentions were not actual arrests, but routine procedures to check documents.
Belarusian news portal tut.by reported citing a spokesperson of the Minsk city executive committee that administrative cases have started to be brought up against journalists detained during the Sunday protest.
On Sunday, Oleg Lavrukhin, the prosecutor of the city of Minsk, said that around 3,000 people have been arrested or fined in the Belarusian capital since the beginning of mass protests in August. The protests started after President Alexander Lukashenko secured his sixth term in the August 9 election, with the Belarusian opposition refusing to accept the results of the vote.
