Charter'97 photo correspondent: “They were kicking me in the head and stole a camera”

A photo journalist of charter97.org was to cover the football tournament for the  Cup of the Belarusian House in Warsaw.

“When they began to beat Zmitser Barodka, I raised my camera  to shoot it. A Pole shouted at me: 'Belarusian bitch!' He attacked and knocked me down to the ground. I was holding a camera trying to prevent it from damaging. The Pole then began to kick me in the head and hands as I was holding the camera. He broke my finger in this way. I loosened a grip, he snatched the camera out of my hands and ran away. In Belarus, riot policemen seize equipment from journalists and beat them, but I did not expect anything like this to happen in Warsaw,” Ivan Mezhui says.

We remind Polish hooligans attacked participants of the Belarusian House Cup Tournament in Warsaw on August 12. Teams of Belsat TV, Euroradio, European Belarus campaign and the Belarusian Information House took part in the tournament. Polish players refused to leave the stadium, though their time on the stadium expired. The hooligans beat the Belarusians cruelly – co-director of Belarusian House Zmitser Barodka has a nasal fracture, charter97.org journalist has a head injury (he received stitches) and a broken finger.