Shunevich threatens opposition

Preventive arrests of activists will be continued.

The Belarusian interior minister said it to journalists in the “house of representatives”, BelaPAN reports.

“There is not and cannot be such a definition as preventive detention. The detained persons are those who committed administrative offences – disorderly conduct, failure to obey police officers and so on. We have always detained, detain and will detain such people,” he said.

Nine political prisoners, including former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights Ales Bialiatski, remain in prison in Belarus. About 30 opposition activsts were detained by the police in the last two weeks. Human rights defenders explain the arrests by the ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk.