A total of 245 protestors were detained in Belarus on Saturday, most of them in Misnk, the unregistered Vesna human rights center said on Sunday, TASS reports.
According to rights activists, over 220 people were apprehended in the capital Minsk. Detentions were also reported in Novogrudok, Brest, Gomel, Soligorsk, Baranovichi, Mogilev, Novopolotsk.
Opposition activists tried to hold mass protests in the Belarusian capital and other cities on Saturday, but those were suppressed by law enforcers. Belarusian police detained more than 100 people on Saturday for public order violations, Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova told TASS. Chemodanova added that among a variety of public order violations were single-person pickets. Nevertheless, the Interior Ministry spokeswoman pointed out that no unsanctioned mass gatherings had been recorded in the country throughout the day.
Nationwide demonstrations engulfed Belarus following the August 9 presidential election. According to the Central Election Commission’s official results, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won by a landslide, garnering 80.10% of the vote. His closest rival in the race, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, came in second, with 10.12% of the ballot. However, she refused to recognize the election’s outcome, and left Belarus for Lithuania. After the results of the exit polls were announced late on August 9, mass protests erupted in downtown Minsk and other Belarusian cities. During the early post-election period, the rallies snowballed into fierce clashes between the protesters and police. Sporadic local protests continue to date. The opposition calls on its supporters for more centralized protests in the spring. The head of Belarus’ State Security Committee (KGB) said earlier that attempts would be made on March 25-27 to destabilize the country.
