Over 200 detained on Freedom Day Updated
Minsk, March 25, 2021. Photo: svaboda.org
More than two hundred people were detained yesterday across the country, the Interior Ministry said in its official Telegram channel. Viasna knows the names of 172 protesters arrested in a dozen locations, including 110 in Minsk.
The traffic police said it stopped 43 cars whose drivers honked their horns as part of the protest. Eleven of them were detained and their vehicles were towed away.
The mass detentions were the government’s response to a series of simultaneous protests scheduled for March 25 to mark Freedom Day, the anniversary of the Belarusian People’s Republic. Earlier, local authorities in various parts of Belarus turned down dozens of requests by the opposition to arrange legal rallies.
UPD. As of 11 am, Viasna knows the names of 245 people detained across Belarus, including 176 in Minsk.
