Riot police in Minsk have arrested hundreds of people, beating many of them, during a violent crackdown on a protest against Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s government.

Tatsyana Revyako, an activist from the Belarusian human rights group Vyasna (Spring), said more than 400 people were arrested on the streets of the Belarusian capital on March 25.

Revyako said that “many of the arrested were beaten and are in need of medical assistance.”

The Belarusian Journalists’ Association said 20 journalists who were covering the unauthorized demonstration were also detained by authorities.

RFE/RL correspondent Alyaksandra Dynko described the police violence as “brutal.”

Dynko said elderly citizens, some disabled and as old as in their 80s, were roughed up by several police who violently shoved them into police vehicles.

She said police also used batons to beat young men and women, and even teenagers under the age of 18, if they passively resisted arrest by sitting on the ground in a gesture of nonviolent protest.

As many as five police would hold a person while another officer beat them with a baton on their torso and legs, Dynko said. She said those who questioned why they were being detained were also beaten with police batons.

Full story: rferl.org

RFE/RL’s Belarus Service

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