# Security forces detain thousands after the 9 August 2020 vote

Date: 2020

## The fact

From the night of 9–10 August 2020, Belarusian security forces used stun grenades, rubber bullets and mass detention against post-election crowds. The Interior Ministry itself later counted overnight detentions in the hundreds to thousands; ODIHR on 10 and 19 August recorded disproportionate force, arbitrary arrests, and alleged torture.

## Context

The president is commander of the interior troops and the security vertical. Local OMON units executed. Courts processed administrative detentions. He did not write the ODIHR press release. He did not sit in every cell at Akrestsina. Sharing execution is not a reason to drop the row.

The CEC certification of 14 August is a neighbouring instrument. Ryanair FR4978 is a different date. Do not merge them.

The president of Belarus is head of state and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. He can issue decrees, sign statutes the [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly) has passed, and represent the state abroad. He does not write OSCE commitments, ICAO Council decisions, UN General Assembly resolutions, or Ukrainian martial-law decrees.

## Evidence and sources

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus (via Reuters contemporaneous record) carries the official instrument or communique. OSCE/ODIHR records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [civic space](/drivers/civic-space): a completed mass-detention campaign after a contested vote shrinks the room to assemble and advocate. It is not a unique torture coefficient from a single night.

## What is established and what is not

Established: mass detentions in the days after 9 August 2020, counted by the Interior Ministry and independently recorded by ODIHR as arbitrary arrest and alleged ill-treatment.

Not established: a unique first-night injury coefficient, or that every later Viasna stock number is this same Fact.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

OMON executed. ODIHR did not.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Security forces detain thousands after the 9 August 2020 vote, not a later speech about Security forces detain thousands after the 9 August 2020 vote.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Security forces detain thousands after the 9 August 2020 vote on 2020-08-10 is not a licence to treat every later Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus (via Reuters contemporaneous record) communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Security forces detain thousands after the 9 August 2020 vote into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He commanded the security vertical that carried out the detentions. OMON executed. ODIHR did not. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Alexander Lukashenka: https://factrail.ai/people/alexander-lukashenko

## Drivers

- Civic Space: https://factrail.ai/drivers/civic-space

## Sources

- https://odihr.osce.org/odihr/460693
- https://www.reuters.com/article/world/belarus-says-police-detained-about-700-protesters-overnight-idUSKCN2590Z8/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/by-protest-crackdown-2020