One of the only two remaining free leaders of the Belarusian Opposition Coordination Council was arrested by unidentified individuals sent by the authorities. Protests by Belarusians against long-ruling President Alexander Lukashenko continue after the disputed election.
Lawyer Maxim Znak’s assistant, Gylleb German, said Znak was taken from the Coordinating Council’s office on Wednesday (September 9) by strangers wearing ski masks.
Znak’s arrest comes as Lukashenko is trying to quell a wave of protests against him. Zinak managed to send the word “mask” by text message, Germann says, and then his phone was taken from him.
Today, the only remaining leading member of the Coordination Council who is still free in Belarus is 2015 Nobel laureate for literature Svetlana Alexeyevich. However, unidentified individuals tried to enter her apartment on Wednesday.
Several European Union diplomats and journalists arrived at her residence in Minsk to prevent her from being arrested.
Lukashenko was declared the winner of the Aug. 9 election. The opposition, the United States, and the European Union alleged that the election was fraudulent. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest for five weeks after the election.
Lukashenko’s election opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has since left Belarus.
More than 7,000 protesters have been arrested, and there is reportedly widespread evidence of authorities mistreating and torturing protesters. At least four people have reportedly died during the demonstrations.
On Wednesday, during a meeting in Estonia, the Nordic Baltic states’ foreign ministers called on Belarusian authorities to stop repressing and prosecuting activists.
Alexeyevich had been questioned by Belarusian investigators last month. Authorities opened a criminal investigation into the Coordinating Council, which investigators say jeopardized national security by demanding a transition of power.
Several members of the committee have been arrested, while others have been forcibly expelled abroad.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States is deeply concerned about the Belarusian government’s attempt to forcibly expel opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova. Pompeo said the U.S. and other countries are considering imposing sanctions in response to the recent events in Belarus.
We applaud the courage of Ms. Kolesnikova and the people of Belarus who have peacefully defended their right to choose their leader in free and fair elections in the face of unjust violence and repression by Belarusian authorities, including the beating of peaceful marchers in broad daylight on September 6 and the arrest of hundreds of others, as well as the increasing number of people who have been arrested,” Pompeo said in a statement. The increase in kidnappings.”
He said the possible sanctions action would “hold accountable those involved in human rights violations and repression in Belarus.”
Kolesnikova was arrested on Monday along with two other members of the opposition movement, Anton Rodenkov and Ivan Kravtsov. On Tuesday, they were driven in a car to the border between Belarus and Ukraine. Kolesnikova tore up her passport at the border and was detained on the Belarusian side.
Rodnekov and Kravtsov, meanwhile, crossed the border into Ukraine.
Rodnekov described it at a press conference in Kiev: “She shouted that she wasn’t going anywhere. She was sitting in her car, saw her passport in the front seat, tore it into many small pieces, crumpled them up, and threw it out the window. After that, she opened the backseat door and walked back to the Belarus border.”
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement expressing deep concern “about the repeated use of force against peaceful demonstrators and the reported pressure exerted on civil society activists of the opposition.
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