Detentions at Jakub Kolas street on Freedom Day in Minsk - in pictures
Minsk, Jakub Kolas Square. 25 March 2018. Photo: Euroradio
The police in the Belarus capital city Minsk did not allow a demonstration to happen to mark 100 years of Belarusian National Republic. On 25 March in the morning, officers carried out preventive detentions of activists, including reportedly opposition figure Mikalai Statkevich. Later in the day, the police also 'cleaned up' Jakub Kolas Square. Dozens of people who planned to take part in the demonstration, including by-passers and journalists, ended up in police buses. Female plainclothes agents were also deployed to disrupt the demonstration.
The demonstration was not allowed by the authorities unlike the rally and the concert in front of the Opera and Ballet Theater in central Minsk.
