The police in Minsk continued on Tuesday their hunt for opposition activists in an effort to avoid any street protests in the city during the May 9-25 Ice Hockey World Championship.
Former political prisoner Syarhey Kazakow wrote on his Facebook page that he had just been arrested and was to be taken to the Leninski district police station.
In May 2011, Mr. Kazakow, who was then 19 years of age, was sentenced to three years in prison over a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010. He was released in August 2011 under Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s pardon.
In a separate development, two unnamed fans of soccer club Partizan Minsk were apprehended and stood trial on charges of disorderly conduct on Tuesday. Associates linked their arrest and expected jailing to the coming world hockey championship.
More than a dozen opposition activists were said to be held in a jail in Minsk on May 6.
