Opposition leader in Belarus held

MINSK, BELARUS —  Belarusian police detained opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich on Thursday during a visit to a province where he was gathering signatures in support of candidates for local elections, his spokesman said.

Milinkevich, who ran against authoritarian President Alexander G. Lukashenko in March and led unprecedented protests afterward, was detained by police near Vitebsk, northeast of the capital, Minsk, spokesman Pavel Mazheika said. A local opposition activist also was taken into custody, he said.

The two were accused of involvement in a previous fatal hit-and-run accident and were taken to the regional police headquarters, he said.

Mazheika called the incident “the latest provocation by Belarusian security services, which are trying to hamper the activity of the opposition.”

Milinkevich led protests that drew large crowds to Minsk’s central square for a week after the March presidential election. Lukashenko won a third term with 83% of the vote in balloting widely rejected by the West.

The Russian-backed Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, quashing dissent, jailing opponents and maintaining his power through elections dismissed by critics abroad and at home as illegitimate. Those tactics have earned him the moniker of “Europe’s last dictator.”