Police question schoolchildren: How did you get on Charter?

Children have faced political charges for an innocent flash mob in Baranavichy.

Two weeks ago, some teens took photos of themselves lying face-down in different places in the town of Baranavichy. It attracted keen interest of the police. The security bodies look for political motives in the game, according to the children.

Photographs from social networks depicting a group of schoolchildren lying face-down in a cinema, in a shop, on the road and on the steps of the city executive committee building became popular among Belarusian internet users.

The teenagers practiced planking, the game that went viral in Europe and America some years ago. Planking is a flash mob involving lying face-down on the ground or any surface. The game became popular in 2009, when a group of doctors and nurses of a British hospital was punished for planking while on duty.

“Various flash mobs, like ice bucket challenge and so on, become popular now. People got used to everything. It's difficult to surprise them. But we tried and succeeded,” a teen told intex-press.by.

However, it's not only the internet fame that the teens acquired but also problems with the police. Juvenile officers began to question children.

The police officers were most interested in the photo depicting the children lying on the steps of the city executive committee building. The police officer tried to speak about the websites that the children never heard of:

“They showed us a printout of Charter-97, or something like that. We saw the website for the first time. We were asked how we got to the site, what we had against the state policy and what we protested against by taking photos on the steps of the city executive committee. We didn't even understand what they meant. We thought the city authorities' headquarters was opposite the civil registry office, not opposite the statue of Lenin,” a 14-year-old boy said.

The teens say the policeman “promised to prove” that they did it “under the influence of “Spice” drugs”. One could think that scared children misunderstood the police officer, but the mother of a teen involved in the incident quoted the words of a school teacher:

“My child's teacher (school No.10) supposed that the group of children was bought by America and made to lie on the steps of the city execute committee building under the influence of 'Spice' ahead of the presidential election. It's ridiculous!” the woman says.