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A protest leader, Maria Kolesnikova, was kidnapped by several unidentified people in central Belarus on Monday, local news site Tut.By reported, according to Agerpres.
“On the morning of September 7, in front of the National Museum of Art, several unknown persons boarded Koleskinova in a minibus that said ‘Sviaz’ (‘Communications’) and set off in an unknown direction.” ‘wrote the portal.
Maria Kolesnikova’s political allies said she was verifying information about her abduction, but did not answer the phone. She is a member of the Opposition Coordination Council, against which the Belarusian authorities have initiated lawsuits, writes AFP.
At the same time, Belarusian police said they had not detained Maria Kolesnikova, according to the Interfax news agency, cited by Reuters.
Maria Kolesnikova is the last remaining in Belarus of the three female politicians who joined forces ahead of the August 9 presidential elections in an attempt to counter leader Alexander Lukashenko. The other two, Svetlana Tihanovskaya, who was the opposition candidate in the elections, and Veronika Tepkalo, have already left the country.
A critical voice for the president, he played an important role in the country’s post-election political crisis, amid massive protests and strikes against Lukashenko’s re-election.
On August 31, Maria Kolesnikova announced that she was forming a new political party, “Together”, with the jailed team of her opponent Viktor Babariko, with whom she had previously worked.
If confirmed, his abduction comes as the Belarusian authorities appear to have stepped up their efforts to quell the protests.
More than 600 arrests after the weekend’s protests
Belarusian police said on Monday they had arrested 633 people during Sunday’s rally in opposition to the re-election in early August of President Alexander Lukashenko. It is the highest number of arrests at an opposition rally since the first protests after the presidential elections on August 9, severely repressed by law enforcement.
According to AFP, more than 100,000 people marched in the center of Minsk on Sunday at the call of the opposition, in the fourth consecutive weekend of mass mobilization.
Like a week ago, the police deployed impressive devices. The army and armored vehicles surrounded strategic buildings and metro stations were blocked with barriers and barbed wire. Some images show hooded men, in plain clothes or armed with sticks, walking through the city center and following protesters.
The protests also took place in many other cities, especially Grodno and Brest, both in the west of the country.
Lukashenko, 66, who has been in power for 26 years and whose re-election on August 9 is being challenged by the opposition, which claims the election was rigged, continues to rule out any dialogue and seeks Moscow’s support. Far from giving back, authorities increased their arrests last week in response to the student mobilization.
Also read: A 73-year-old great-grandmother became the heroine of the protests in Belarus. The images of Nina in front of the squires went viral
Editing: Cristina Iancu
