Reuters reports:
Authorities in Belarus on Saturday detained Maria Kolesnikova, a prominent member of the opposition campaign challenging President Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election, the campaign team said.
Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people have been detained in a crackdown ahead of Sunday’s election in an attempt to clamp down on street protests that pose the biggest challenge in years to Lukashenko’s rule.
#Belarus. Repressions did follow. People are being randomly detained right now in the Minsk city centre. One day before the election. pic.twitter.com/PoymBF9EKZ
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) August 8, 2020
Maria Kolesnikova, a top ally of Belarus’s leading opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has been detained by police on the eve of a tense presidential vote – Tikhanovskaya’s spokeswoman pic.twitter.com/wNXwOLsKrL
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 8, 2020
Analysis: Belarus’s president looks for his sixth election victory on Sunday. He has a well-used playbook to win. https://t.co/TuMa38YRF4
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 8, 2020
I am calling for the immediate release of US citizen Vitali Shkliarov, who is being held on dubious charges in retaliation for his criticism of President Lukashenko. #Belarushttps://t.co/393ZryM7Q6
— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) August 7, 2020