Outpouring of grief in Belarus as protester dies after violent detention

Thousands of people across Belarus stopped to observe a silence at noon on Friday in the memory of a 31-year-old anti-government protester who died the night before after he was beaten by plainclothes police officers.

Roman Bondarenko’s death marks another dark chapter in the ongoing standoff between swathes of Belarusian society and Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s leader of 26 years whose dubious landslide election set off anti-government protests in August.

Mr Bondarenko died of a severe brain injury in hospital on Thursday evening where he was taken from a police station the night before.

Mr Bondarenko, a painter who served in special forces and mostly recently worked as the manager in a convenience store, was involved in grass-roots activism in his neighbourhood in northern Minsk where a local yard became a popular protest venue known as "Plaza of Change".

Plaza of Change and other neighbourhoods that display anti-Lukashenko white-red-and-white national flags have become targets for riot police and plainclothes officers, who tear down the flags and other protest symbols.

Mr Bondarenko was attacked by a plainclothes police officer on Thursday night after he went to chase agents away from the playground.

Several videos released by local residents show a masked man in a hoodie tackling Mr Bondarenko, throwing him to the ground and kicking him.

He was taken away in an unmarked van with tinted windows that police often use to transport detainees.

Local news outlet Tut.by quoted a doctor saying that Mr Bondarenko had visible bruises and scratches all over his body when he was admitted in the hospital. He could barely move and fell into a coma shortly afterwards.

Mr Lukashenko on Friday evening called for a “transparent and impartial investigation," adding, "it is bad when a person passes away."

Belarusian investigators in a statement on Friday sought to portray Mr Bondarenko’s death as the result of a drunken brawl, alleging that alcohol was found in his blood upon arrival in hospital.

Hospital staff refuted the allegations, telling Tut.by that tests showed “zero” alcohol in his blood.

Belarus’ main investigative body described the incident as “a fight between aggressive local residents who were hanging ribbons and individuals who were taking them off.” It did not indicate that the attackers were security officers.

Thousands of people poured into Plaza of Change on Thursday night to light candles and leave flowers at the place where he was beaten up.

Mr Bondarenko’s neighbour Yulia, 39, who asked her last name to be withheld for fear of reprisals, told the Telegraph she was near him when the altercation started.

Mr Bondarenko was attacked when he remarked that it makes no sense talking to the plainclothes officers, Yulia said.

She said she saw Mr Bondarenko attacked by one of the men and taken away but he appeared well enough to be able to walk before he was taken into custody.

“We’re all in shock and we can’t sleep at night,” she said of herself and her neighbours. “Anyone of us could have been in his place. We’re racked with guilt: maybe we should have all come out that night or stayed in doors, and it would not have happened.”

She remembered Mr Bondarenko as a kind man whom he met this summer as the local playground turned into a centre of civic activism where Mr Bondarenko taught drawing to children including her daughter.

Mr Bondarenko’s death is likely to stir up more protests, Yulia said “The more mistakes authorities make, the more united we get.”

Belarusians across the country stopped to observe a silence at noon on Friday in Mr Bondarenko’s memory.

Players of a Minsk football team stood in the middle of a football field with their heads bowed. Uniformed workers in orange hats stood by the factory gate of a major fertliser plant in western Belarus in solidarity while in Minsk, students staged silent vigils at their campuses.

Olga Kucherenko, Mr Bondarenko’s cousin, in an interview with Radio Free Europe described Mr Bondarenko as “a very calm person who would never get involved in any conflicts” and said she hoped for justice for the 31-year-old man.

The European Union said on Friday that it was ready to impose additional sanctions on the Lukashenko regime after Mr Bondarenko’s death. It described his death as “an outrageous and shameful result of the actions by the Belarusian authorities.”