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On November 15, the people of Belarus held protests and actions in memory of Raman Bandarenka, killed by unknown people in plain clothes. People in Minsk, regional centers and small towns took to the streets. In Minsk, the police did not allow people to gather on the central streets. Thousands of people came to the Square of Change (the popular name of the neighborhood, whose residents actively participate in the protests) in Minsk, where Raman Bandarenka had been killed. The drivers supported the protesters by honking their car horns. In the evening, the police surrounded the block and attacked the protesters using special weapons, many were taken away in police trucks. People were grabbed and beaten even in the nearby store. Police detained journalists covering teh protests in Minsk, Vitebsk, Hrodna and Pinsk. We know of 23 detentions of journalists.

In Slonim, investigators came with a search warrant to the founder of the independent Hazeta Slonimaskaya newspaper Hanna Valadashchuk.

In the afternoon, TUT.BY had reports coming in about Belarusians having problems with getting back home from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Latvia. Later the State Border Committee commented on the situation with border closures.

The democratic opposition in Belarus has won this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, European Parliament President David Sassoli announced today. The Sakharov Prize is awarded by the European Parliament every year in memory of Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the award of the prize to the Belarusian opposition and recalls that six journalists are still in prison in Belarus just for doing their job.