«The floor under me was covered in blood» RFE/RL reporter has his nose broken during the arrest

In the evening of July 15, RFE/RL reporter Anton Trafi­movich and free­lance reporter with Bela­PAN news agency Vialet­ta Sauchyts were snatched in Min­sk, near Niami­ha street. Lat­er they were found in Zavod­s­ki dis­trict police depart­ment. At 8:34 p.m. the jour­nal­ists released.

Short­ly before his arrest, Anton Trafi­movich was livestream­ing from out­side the build­ing of the Cen­tral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion. Here is how he describes his deten­tion:

«I was walk­ing from Mias­niko­va to Niami­ha street when I saw a van stop­ping right next to me. About 6 or 7 peo­ple rushed towards me, two in riot police uni­form, and oth­ers in plain clothes. They twist­ed my arms behind my back and stuck a hand in my mouth to stop me from scream­ing. They also punched me in the nose.

In the van, they put me on the floor, on my knees, hand­cuffed me behind my back, and forced me to hold my head down all the way.  I was bleed­ing, but the police did not react to that. The whole floor under me was cov­ered in blood, and my clothes, too.

No one intro­duced him­self, or told me why they were arrest­ing me. They just threw me into the van and took me to Zavod­s­ki dis­trict police depart­ment. Only there I was allowed to wash blood off my face. An hour lat­er they let me go free.»