Five opposition candidates remain imprisoned in Belarus after post-election violence

Five opposition candidates remain imprisoned in Belarus after post-election violence

2010-12-22 07:08:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

MINSK, BELARUS (BNO NEWS) -- Five opposition candidates remained imprisoned on Tuesday, two days after post-election violence that hit Belarus as thousands of people demanded the removal of current President Alexander Lukashenko.

The post-election violence lasted until Monday morning and resulted in over 600 arrests, which included foreign journalists, activists, and nine Belarusian opposition presidential candidates. The protests erupted after fraud allegations during the vote counting process.

International observers earlier reported that Sunday's election failed to give Belarus the necessary new start. In addition, the electoral process was marred with inconsistencies, especially during vote count in which observers assessed almost half of the vote counts monitored as 'bad' or 'very bad'.

According to official election results, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko won re-election with 79.7 percent of the vote. The number was released after all votes had been counted.

Three of the presidential candidates, Andrei Sannikov, Vladimir Neklyayev and Nikolai Statkevich, were beaten by abductors thought to be security agents before they were taken to an unknown detention facility. The condition of the candidates is unknown as well as the extent of their injuries.

On Sunday night, Sannikov was taken to a hospital after he was severely beaten. However, he was detained by police officers and punched again before being taken to a detention center run by the Belarusian security service, known as KGB.

Sannikov's wife, Irina Khalip, was with him in a car at the moment of the candidate's abduction. When the vehicle was stopped by law enforcement agents she was speaking live on the air to Ekho Moskvy radio. She witnessed her husband's beating and then was transported to the Okrestina detention center.

Candidate Neklayev was abducted from his hospital bed by security agents. He is apparently being held in an unidentified KGB prison. Opposition candidate Statkevich was hauled from a taxi in Minsk by agents. He also was beaten and taken to an unknown location.

Two other opposition candidates, Ales Mikhalevich and Vitaly Rymashevsky, are in custody as of Tuesday. A sixth candidate, Grigory Kostusyov, was freed on the condition of not leaving the country under any circumstances.

The United States earlier condemned the violence and said the election results were not legitimate. U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the U.S. is deeply concerned over the illegal beating and detention of presidential candidates and called for the immediate release of them.

Also, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said its monitors concluded that Belarus still has a 'considerable way' to go to meet its obligations and condemned the detention of most presidential candidates along with hundreds of activists, journalists, and civil society representatives.

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek also strongly condemned the attacks on presidential candidates and demanded President Lukashenko to immediately halt all police forces from executing such actions, and to punish all those involved.

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