The Telegram channel that has been organizing the protests called for demonstrators to march on a detention facility in Minsk on August 17. NEXTA – a Poland-based telegram channel which emerged as the primary organizer of protests – published a message at 9 a.m. local time calling for protesters to gather in Independence Square at 6:00 p.m. local time – the latest yet start time for protests, which have so far begun between noon and 2:00 p.m. NEXTA instructed protesters to progress past the Volodarskogo Street pre-trial detention facility (where most detained protesters have been processed) to the Akrestsin street detention facility (where the majority of alleged torture of protesters has occurred) by 8:00 p.m. NEXTA called for doctors and journalists to then enter the facility to interview tortured detainees and “show on air what is happening there.”
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Mason Clark: NEXTA provokes turning point in Belarus protests
Relatives and friends of detained participants of recent opposition rallies gather outside a detention centre in Minsk on August 12, 2020.
