Associate Of Belarusian Opposition Leader Tsikhanouskaya Detained In Minsk

Belarusian police say they have detained one of the associates of opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya on suspicion of committing an administrative violation.

Minsk city police spokeswoman Natallya Hanusevich said on October 8 that Anatol Lyabedzka was detained in the capital. She did not elaborate.

Earlier in the day, Lyabedzka's colleagues said he had stopped answering phone calls and that his whereabouts were unknown.

Tsikhanouskaya has announced she had picked Lyabedzka, a former leader of the opposition United Civic Party (AHP), as her representative on constitutional reforms.

Lyabedzka has been fined and briefly jailed several times in the past for his opposition activities.

Tsikhanouskaya denounced Lyabedzka's detention, saying that Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime "showed again that its words mean nothing."

"[The regime] has vowed about its readiness to carry out constitutional reforms, but today Anatol Lyabedzka, who coordinated the work of the Public Constitutional Commission, was detained,” she wrote on Telegram.

"Do not trust the regime's words. Do not offer it any proposals except one -- Lukashenka must go away," the opposition leader added.

With reporting by BelaPAN and Deutsche Welle