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“This is an inhumane and shameful result of the actions of Belarusian officials,” said Peter Stano, spokesman for EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell, of Roman Bandarenko’s death.
The 31-year-old former artist soldier R. Bandarenka was arrested on Wednesday after a dispute in the courtyard of an apartment building in Minsk, where opposition supporters regularly gather.
Witnesses said the conflict arose between protesters hanging red and white ribbons and formless militiamen trying to remove them.
VIDEO: Residents were shocked: a policeman broke into an apartment in Minsk and rushed to beat a man covered with a flag
Bandarenka was reported dead on Thursday. The news sparked a wave of outrage in the opposition camp, whose representatives say President Aliaksandr Lukashenko’s security forces are to blame for the man’s death.
Stano said that an opposition activist “died in a Minsk hospital after hours of surgery due to serious injuries reportedly caused by atrocities by untrained militias.”
The EU statement said the Belarusian authorities were directly responsible for the violence against the country’s population and for creating an environment in which “illegal atrocities could take place”.
“We hope that officials will put an end to this violence and persecution, release all wrongly detained persons, including political prisoners, immediately and unconditionally, thoroughly and transparently investigate all human rights violations, and hold accountable. to those responsible, “Stan said.
“The European Union is already imposing sanctions on 55 people responsible for the brutal repression and intimidation and is ready to impose additional sanctions,” Borrell said.
The EU is already imposing sanctions on Belarusian leader Lukashenko and several other senior state officials and institutions, according to Brussels, who participated in the post-election crackdown on protesters.
The EU and Canada do not recognize the results of the presidential elections on August 9 and say they do not consider Lukashenko the legitimate president of the country.
On Thursday night, large crowds with candles and flowers gathered in honor of Bandarenko’s memorial apartment building, which the opposition called “Plaza of Change” or “Court of Change”, when residents of the surrounding houses prevented the Militiamen will paint anti-government slogans on the walls of houses in August.
Opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanouskaja, who currently lives in Lithuania, called on Belarusians to pay a minute of silence on Saturday in “all districts of each city” to honor the memory of R. Bandarenka.
“Let’s do it for a man who was killed because he wanted to live in a free country,” he said.
Thousands of protesters were detained by the militia during the three months of protest and many of them were reported to have subsequently suffered violence and torture by officials. Several people died in the repression of the protests.
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