Popular Belarusian vlogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski has been detained not far from the Belarusian city of Mahiliou, human rights centre Viasna reports. The reasons for the detention are unknown.
The local police stopped the blogger’s car when it was moving along the ring road. At that moment, Tikhonovsky started streaming on his YouTube channel. As follows from the video, the policemen used the alleged necessity to check documents as the pretext. In turn, Tsikhanovsky refused to step out of the car and demanded that the police show their IDs first.
A day earlier, Mahiliou police tried to bar Tsikhanouski from holdinga meeting with the viewers. They attempted to detain his associate Zmitser, but the people who came to participate in the event did not let them to do that.
The resident of Homiel created Youtube channel Страна Для Жизни ( A Country for Life) that has nearly 140,000 subscribers. After covering December’s protests against deepening Belarus-Russia integration, he was sentenced to the total of 30 days in prison. In his Youtube videos, Tsikhanouski harshly criticises the policy pursued by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
