Unique video of Square dispersal was preserved in prison

Pictures from a camera of one of prisoners were not deleted.

This picture was made by Yury Shpak-Ryzhkou in the paddy-wagon, where he had spent 24 hours.

An activist if “For Freedom” movement and a former member of the election commission #4 of Leninski district of Minsk Yury Shpak-Ryzhkou and his wife Tatsyana Hrechanikava were on Independence Square on December 19. Yury was making photos and capturing on video the events by his amateur camera. Before the dispersal he created a 5-minute video. Special task forces drew a cordon around people, banging truncheons on the shields. Commanding officers cry in gruff voice: “Stay put, stay put!” Demonstrators are shouting in response to the noise: “We do not fear! We do not fear!” Paddy wagons appear behind the line of the policemen: “Well! They have come for us,” someone said. There was no fear in its voice. There is an impression that people do not believe there will be a crackdown. But first cries are heard: “What are you doing?! Fascists!” One can hear fragments of orders to arrest people.

This video, as well as photos made in one of the paddy wagons, have been preserved luckily. Yury and his wife were detained separately. He spent a day and night in the paddy wagon waiting for a trial. Before the trial which punished him by 10 days of arrest he met his wife in Akrestsin Street detention centre, and managed to pass the camera to her. Tatsyana served 15-day arrest in the detention centre in Skaryna Street. The camera was placed with her personal things, and nothing was deleted from it. “Girls from my camera somehow smuggled a mobile phone into the cell. They made pictures of the everyday life in prison. And guards found out that fact. They invited them for conversation and deleted all pictures,” Tatsyana Hrechanikava told. She was beaten during detention. A special task force policeman seized her scarf with “Pahonya” coat-of-arms. Like Yury, she was charged with participation in an unsanctioned rally, shouting slogans: “Long live Belarus!”, “Resign!” and disobedience to police.

In his blog Yury Shpak-Ryzhkou posted a gallery of amateur portraits of his cell-mates, and wrote a sometimes humorous story about his adventures on the Sqaure and in prison, “Nasha Niva” reports.