On Wednesday evening, several minibuses arrived at a residential area with apartment buildings in Minsk.
Masked men jumped out of the minibuses and began tearing down the white ribbons set up in a courtyard in support of the protests against Lukashenko, DN reports with reference to the Belarusian site Realt.onliner.
Several of the residents, including Roman Bondarenko, stood outside and watched what was going on in their yard.
Suddenly, the masked men attacked Bodarenko and hit him on the ground.
Several witnesses tell how the 31-year-old was then pulled into one of the vans and driven away.
A few hours later, he was dumped at a hospital in Minsk.
Then he was unconscious and had suffered such severe brain damage that the doctors immediately operated on him, but to no avail.
On Thursday, Bodarenko died as a result of his injuries.
The regime's actions are increasingly brutal
The masked men wore civilian clothes and therefore there is no evidence of who they were.
But the incident is in line with the increasingly brutal actions that have symbolized the Interior Ministry's elite soldiers in recent weeks.
The regime in Belarus has become increasingly violent in its attempts to quell the protests.
At the end of October, testimonies came about how the police used shock grenades against demonstration trains in the capital and chased protesters into stairwells where they were beaten.
As recently as last week, at least 800 people taking part in nationwide demonstrations around Belarus were taken into custody.
The act is expected to revive the protests in Belarus.
Thousands of people have already gathered in the streets of Minsk during a memorial service and opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya has delivered a speech addressing Bondarenko's family.
- Your son became an innocent victim of a horrible system.
But for us, he will always be our country's hero, she says.