Observers detained at Jazz hostel in Minsk
Human rights defenders were released three hours later.
“Special police troops rushed in and ordered us to switch off our phones and computers. They counted everything, put people in the police bus and left," Anastasiya Matchanka describes her adventures.
Even two sanitary technicians were detained regardless of the fact that they were wearing their uniform.
All the detained (25 people) were fingerprinted and let off three hours later without any explanation. "We tried to find out what was going on but they said that we would stay there for much longer if we really wanted to know. We chose the variant that suited us better," Nasta said.
The detained were going to take part in the report conference the in Vilnius on September 25. The project "Election Observation: Theory and Practice" was launched by the youth centre "Belarus Watch", the European Humanities University and the Belarusian Human Rights House in exile (Vilnius). Young people have been getting ready for election observation there for five years.
