Authorities in Belarus detain dozens of opposition activists before banned annual rally

Dozens of Belarusian opposition activists detained

MINSK, Belarus — An opposition leader in authoritarian Belarus says dozens of supporters were detained while making their way to the Belarusian capital for a planned, but banned rally.

Valentin Stefanovich of the Vyasna opposition movement says security officials detained some two dozen activists throughout the ex-Soviet nation.

He says that while the demonstration was sanctioned to take place Thursday in a remote park, the activists would defy a ban and march across the downtown Independence Avenue to mark the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belarusian state.

President Alexander Lukashenko’s government has banned such rallies in the past, and each protest ended with dozens of arrests and convictions.