MINSK, Belarus — Opposition activists in Belarus say the authoritarian government is barring its critics from leaving the ex-Soviet nation.
Zhanna Litvina, the head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, a media freedom watchdog, said authorities barred her Thursday from leaving for Warsaw.
Several other critics of Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko haven’t been allowed to go on foreign trips during the past week.
Officials have refused to comment on the reports that the government have compiled a list of journalists, opposition activists and human rights defenders forbidden to leave Belarus.
Lukashenko, who Western rights group have called Europe’s last dictator, has been in office since 1994. He has relentlessly cracked down on opposition groups and independent media.
