Police beat opposition youths in Salihorsk

Opposition youths are reported to have been beaten up by police in Salihorsk, Minsk region, on Wednesday over a demonstration staged in protest against increasing crackdown on individual entrepreneurs.

Around 60 people arrived at the city executive committee that day. They lined up and stood for a while holding lightened candles.

The demonstration was also in support of two civil society activists -- Aliaksandar Tsatsura and Larysa Nasanovich -- who were earlier jailed for 15 days for gathering signatures for two petitions to the city authorities.

Around 18 police officers were at the scene and filmed the demonstration, Tatsiana Kuchynskaya, a local entrepreneur, told BelaPAN.

"When they approached us to ask what we were doing there, we replied, ' This is a funeral for small business," she said.

Nine members of the unregistered Young Front organization were attacked after other demonstrators dispersed. According to Ms. Kuchynskaya, officers surrounded  the youths and started beating them. "One was hit with a truncheon so hard that he fell to the ground," she said. "They beat even girls."

The youths were then put into a police vehicle and driven away to a police department.