Belarus protests: more than 6,000 arrested, says interior ministry
Authorities in Belarus say they have arrested more than 6,000 people during three nights of violently suppressed demonstrations against vote-rigging in Sunday’s disputed presidential election, as more footage and accounts emerged of police beating and violently detaining protesters.
Opposition leaders have been jailed and driven out of the country in a massive crackdown following the election, which the election commission said was won in a landslide by President Alexander Lukashenko.
Among those to have fled is Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition candidate, who left for Lithuania after an apparent threat to her children.
At a detention centre on the outskirts of the capital, Minsk, desperate families have gathered each morning begging police for information on relatives who have gone missing at the protests.
In a rally in central Minsk on Wednesday, hundreds of women wearing white and holding flowers formed a human chain to protest against police brutality and mass arrests.
The Belarus Free Theatre, an underground theatre group critical of the government, reported that two of its members had been arrested and said they were being held in desperate conditions.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/12/belarus-protesters-and-police-clash-for-third-night-as-eu-threatens-sanctions