Thread by @CITeam_en

On August 10, Belarusian authorities announced the death of a protester in Minsk. An IED exploded in his hand, they alleged.

We analyzed a video which the protester's wife says shows his death. We believe he was killed by Belarusian special forces
medium.com/@CITeam_ru/%D0…

According to Belarus police, the incident happened at Pritytskogo street in Minsk. The intersection of Pushkina and Pritytskogo was a hotbed of protest activity on the night of the 10th,

A video soon surfaced which allegedly showed the protester's death.

https://twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1293254454729494528

Yesterday, the protester was identified by @svaboda as Alyaksandr Taraykousky. His widow told journalists he was indeed in that video.
svaboda.org/a/30781421.html

@svaboda We geolocated the video at the intersection of Pushkina and Pritytskogo in Minsk.
yandex.ru/maps/geo/10012…

A frame-by-frame analysis showed that, contrary to Belarusian police claims, nothing exploded in the protester's hand but that he was shot from a line
of security forces.

@svaboda We also geolocated several photographs from that night taken at the same intersection. They show security personnel in military-style gear. One photo shows them confronted by a (different) protester.

We believe it were these security forces who shot the protester in the video.

The security personnel at the intersection was carrying different types of weapons capable of firing less-than-lethal munitions. Sadly, as practice shows, less-than-lethal munitions can lead to injuries and even death, especially when fired point blank.

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1293672556906545152

These security forces were also apparently involved in shooting a journalist of @nashaniva with a rubber bullet earlier that night.

@nashaniva We were unable to conslusively determine the unit(s) those security forces belonged to. Most signs point to the State Security Committee (KGB) special unit "Alpha" or the Ministry of Interior counter-terror unit "Almaz". We believe both units could be present at the intersection.

However, what we do know is that if the video indeed shows the death of Alyaksandr Taraykousky, as his widow claims, then it refutes the police assertion that he blew himself up. No explosion is seen in the video, while a shot from the security forces is clearly visible.

/end

Update: Taraykousky's widow told @tutby that, according to his death certificate, he died of an open chest wound which caused massive bleeding. This is in line to what we saw in the video of security forces shooting a protester. news.tut.by/society/696350…

@tutby AP now has a photo of Alyaksandr Taraykousky's shooting in Minsk. It was taken in the same spot as the shooting video, a chest wound matches the death certificated and "MVD" on the back of a security trooper suggests police spetsnaz "Almaz" involvement.

apimages.com/metadata/Index…