Continued Protests in Belarus Lead to Mass Arrests
What Happened:
Protests in Belarus have been ongoing since Sunday in response to the Presidential election results confirming longtime President Alexander Lukashenko as the overwhelming winner over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Exit polls indicated that Lukashenko won 80% of the vote, but opposition groups claim the election was marred with fraud.
In response to the protests, the Belarus government has been enforcing mass arrests. As of Thursday, over 6,700 protesters have been detained including several of Tikhanovskaya's senior campaign members.
Now Lukashenko's government is being accused of using excessive force, violence, humiliation and even torture in response to the protesters. Multiple eyewitnesses say they have seen people severely beaten.
Hundreds of women lined a street in Minsk Thursday and protested the violence chanting "we are for peace."
UPDATE: Late last night, Belarusian authorities released about 1,000 of the people they detained from protests.
Photo Credit: Zdenek Fekar