Protesters detained as Belarus opposition protest broken up
POLITICS
By Wang Mingyan

2017-03-26 09:17:22

6474km to Beijing

‍Belarus authorities raided the offices of a prominent rights group on Saturday, detaining dozens of people, including foreign rights workers, ahead of a planned protest by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko.
‍The police also detained dozens in the streets and seized a leading opposition leader, Vladimir Nekliayev, as he was returning from Poland, taking him off the train at the border and placing him in a detention facility.
Viasna, a nongovernmental organization that had been tracking arrests and protest rallies across Belarus in recent weeks, said on its website there were 57 people detained, including foreign observers.
Law enforcement officers detain a man during a gathering, denouncing the new tax on those not in full-time employment, in Minsk, Belarus, March 25, 2017. /Reuters Photo
The people seized at Viasna's offices were taken to a police station, where they were told they are "suspected of banditism," searched and let out of the station in small groups after most of the protest had been broken up, the group's lawyer Anastasiya Loiko said.
Saturday's protest was the latest in a series of events against Lukashenko's government, and the largest since the mass demonstrations that followed his disputed re-election in December 2010.
Vehicles of law enforcement services are parked before the rally, in Minsk, Belarus, March 25, 2017. /Reuters Photo
Thousands have attended rallies in recent weeks to oppose a controversial new tax on "spongers" or "freeloaders" -- those who work less than six months a year -- as the country suffers an economic slump, with the swell in protests alarming the government.
Authorities late Friday told organizers that the event would be illegal. On Saturday, scores of armored police trucks and water cannons, as well as officers with automatic rifles, were deployed in the city.
The European Commission called for all detained protesters to be "immediately released" by the authorities. "Respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms, including of expression, association and assembly, needs to be upheld," the commission's delegation to Belarus said in a statement.
(Source: AFP)
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