On Sunday, Hundreds of Belarusian protesters took to streets of the capital Minsk, in a fresh demonstration against President Alexander Lukashenko as anger mounted over the recent death of an opposition activist, named Roman Bondarenko.
Armed police arrested dozens of people and used tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowds calling for the resignation of Lukashenko after 26 years in power.
Belarusian rights group Viasna said at least 328 people were detained, including journalists.
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Some 15 metro stations were closed and mobile internet access was limited, an Agence France-Presse journalist reported.
Tens of thousands have been taking to the streets of cities throughout Belarus every weekend since August 9 when Lukashenko claimed a 6th presidential term in elections that his critics and Western countries said were rigged.
Witnesses said Bondarenko was detained after scuffling with people in plain clothes who had come to a playground to remove red-and-white ribbons.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s main opponent, who fled into exile in Lithuania after the election, said on social media she supported Sunday’s rallies in memory of Bondarenko.
The European Union, in a statement from its foreign policy department, has called Bondarenko’s death “an outrageous and shameful result of the actions by the Belarusian authorities” who had “directly and violently carried out repression of their own population”.
Thousands of people have been arrested in the months of protests, and rights groups say hundreds of detainees have reported being subjected to beatings and other abuse.
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