MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2020) Belarus has launched criminal probe into mass riots, which emerged following the presidential election, and violence against police officers, Investigative Committee Chairman Ivan Noskevich said on Monday.
"The Investigative Committee has opened criminal cases on civil disorder and violence against internal affairs bodies staffers, which happened on the territory of Minsk and across some other regions this night," Noskevich said, as quoted by the state-run news agency Belta.
The probe has been initiated into crimes described in different parts of Article 293 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (organization of mass unrest and participation in it), Noskevich specified, adding that the detainees could face "up to eight and 15 years in prison respectively."
Dozens of police officers were injured, as protesters attacked them using trash bins, sticks, stones, fragments of paving slab, glass bottles and highly inflammable liquids, the Investigative Committee chief added.
Noskevich pledged that the Belarusian law enforcement agencies would do "everything possible to protect the constitutional order."
