Protests Against Dictatorship in Belarus

On the eve of a major opposition rally against the country's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko in the city of Minsk, Belarus, officials in uniforms and plain clothes grabbed people at their homes, offices and on the streets. By Friday up to 300 people were behind bars to stop the coming protest. The KGB, the initials still used by the Belarusian security service, blocked cellphones, hacked the social media accounts of concrete opposition activists and detained activists, supporters of the opposition, and random bystanders. Since 1996, the authoritarian leader Lukashenko has won presidential elections five times and every time the leader threw his opponents in jail. A large crowd did manage to gather in one area, around Yakub Kolas Square to protest Lukashenko, but mass arrests still took place.