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Over 100 people detained in Belarus for public order violations — police

Opposition activists tried to hold mass protests in the Belarusian capital and other cities, but those were suppressed by law enforcers

© Natalya Fedoseenko/TASS

MINSK, March 28. /TASS/. Belarusian police detained more than 100 people on Saturday for public order violations, Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova told TASS.

"As of 16.00, over 100 people were detained and taken to local police precincts for public order violations," she said.

Chemodanova added that among a variety of public order violations were single-person pickets. Nevertheless, the Interior Ministry spokeswoman pointed out that no unsanctioned mass gatherings had been recorded in the country during the day.

Opposition activists tried to hold mass protests in the Belarusian capital and other cities, but those were suppressed by law enforcers.

Journalists released

Five Belarusian journalists, briefly detained by Minsk police earlier on Saturday, have been released, Belarusian media reported.

The country’s tut.by news portal said on its Telegram channel that its "editors Galina Ulasik and Anna Kaltygina are now free."

Besides, the editorial board of the Nasha Niva newspaper confirmed that journalist Katerina Karpitskaya and photographer Nadezhda Buran have been released. Later, the newspaper’s Telegram channel reported that Nasha Niva's editor-in-chief, Yegor Martinovich, also walked free.

Nationwide demonstrations engulfed Belarus following the August 9 presidential election. According to the Central Election Commission’s official results, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won by a landslide, garnering 80.10% of the vote. His closest rival in the race, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, came in second, with 10.12% of the ballot. However, she refused to recognize the election’s outcome, and left Belarus for Lithuania. After the results of the exit polls were announced late on August 9, mass protests erupted in downtown Minsk and other Belarusian cities. During the early post-election period, the rallies snowballed into fierce clashes between the protesters and police. Sporadic local protests continue to date. The opposition calls on its supporters for more centralized protests in the spring. The head of Belarus’ State Security Committee (KGB) said earlier that attempts would be made on March 25-27 to destabilize the country.

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