The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Yuri Karaev on Sunday, August 16, admitted that Alyaksandr Taraikovsky, who died during the protests in Minsk, could be shot from a “non-lethal” weapon.
“I’m not an investigator. Yes, he died. How many people died in the riots in America? But we did not use firearms, but only those that are non-lethal, ”he told tut.by journalist.
The day before, The Associated Press released a video footage of the alleged death of a participant in an unauthorized rally in Minsk. On the same day, the Euroradio Telegram channel published a video taken from a different angle. The video is edited from two recordings. The footage shows a man walking towards the security forces with his hands up. After that, a flash from the shot is visible, and the man stopped, staggered and after a few seconds fell.
The fact that one person died during the protests in Minsk was reported on August 10 by the press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Olga Chemodanova. It was noted that, according to preliminary data, the man was killed during the confrontation with the special forces that arrived at the scene of the protests. The demonstrator tried to throw an explosive device at the security forces, but it exploded in his hand.
Later it became known that the deceased was called Alexander Taraikovsky. According to his common-law wife, the family searched for him for two days and does not believe that he died from an explosive device.
On August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. According to the final data of the Central Election Commission, 80.1% of voters voted for the incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, and 10.1% for the oppositionist Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters did not recognize the results of the vote.
Since August 10, daily large-scale protests have been held in the country, accompanied by arrests. Both citizens and security forces were injured, one civilian was killed. Belarusian enterprises went on strike demanding to cancel the election results.