Police disperse memorial procession in honour of Ihar Ptichkin

Participants and journalists were detained.

People gathered to honour the memory of Ihar Ptichkin from Minsk, who died in a detention facility on August 4.

“We want to gather at 13:00 near the detention facility to have a moment of silence in memory of my brother. He died 40 days ago. We want to pay tribute to all those who died in jails. I am sure my brother is not the only one. They just don't say it, they hide bodies. I want relatives of dead people to join our procession. No one has raised this question before. All fear. But they met the people who don't fear. They would not probably have released the body to us if they had known that we would not keep silence,” Ihar Ptichkin's sister Iryna told Radio Svaboda ahead of the event.

Participants of the procession gathered in Niamiha district to go to the detention facility in Valadarski Street.

A minibus with the registration number 9427 IK7 drove up to them. Participants of the procession as well as Radio Svaboda's correspondent Aleh Hruzdzilovich and Nasha Niva's journalists Iryna Orekhouskaya and Hanna Badziaka were detained.

The journalists standing nearby were ordered to put down their cameras.

The detained people were taken to Minsk's Tsentralny district police station.