Belarusian authorities carried out sweeping raids to arrest people accused of taking part in anti-government rallies abroad earlier this year, the AP news agency has reported.
At least 207 people who attended anti-government protests in countries like Poland, Lithuania, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. were identified by Belarusian authorities, the AP reported, citing Belarus’s Investigative Committee.
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It is unclear how many of those identified were detained in the raids, the latest crackdown on dissent in the Moscow-aligned state, which took place across the country, including the capital, Minsk. According to the AP, the individuals targeted in the raids also risked having their properties seized.
The authorities said government critics had taken part in events recognizing Belarus’s independence from the Russian Empire.
Belarus declared its independence from Russia on March 25, 1918, which is today celebrated as “Freedom Day” by members of the Belarusian diaspora and opposition, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Such celebrations are in defiance of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who officially established July 3 as his country’s independence day – a date marking the Soviet Union’s success in pushing Nazi forces out of Belarus in 1944.
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The latest raids on Lukashenko opponents came ahead of a planned “New Belarus” conference in Warsaw, scheduled for August 9-10, which is set to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a Belarusian presidential election widely considered by rights groups and observers to have been rigged.
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Lukashenko – who has been in power for over 30 years and is a key Kremlin ally – clamped down on political opposition after mass protests broke out in 2020 over the election result.
The 70-year-old authoritarian leader has held the office continuously since 1994, when presidential elections were first held in Belarus.
The conference in Warsaw is to coincide with a “March of Freedom” across the Polish capital on Saturday. Members of the Belarusian opposition organized both events, prompting a formal protest and condemnation from Minsk against Poland.
Belarus is one of the most politically repressive countries in Europe and helped Russian President Vladimir Putin launch his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by acting as a springboard from which Russian troops were deployed.
In June, former Belarusian opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski – husband of current leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya – was released from a Belarus prison in a U.S.-brokered deal.
Tsikhanouskaya was the leading candidate running against Lukashenko in the 2020 election, which sparked the subsequent mass protests and arrests.
Human rights group Viasna estimates that there are close to 1,200 political prisoners in Belarus.
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