Belarus women protest police brutality as hunderds remain in detention

Minsk, Belarus: Hundreds of women dressed in white took to the streets of Minsk on Wednesday to protest police violence. Protests that sparked in Belarus following Sunday's contested election have been ongoing for three days.

On Tuesday, more than 1,000 people were detained for taking part in protests, the Belarusian police said in a statement. The fate of some of those people remains unknown to their relatives, who spend hours waiting outside detention centres to find out where their relatives are. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday said that the waves of protests in the wake of the election are led by people with a criminal past and the unemployed.

Strongman Lukashenko claimed a landslide re-election victory in a vote on Sunday that his opponents say was rigged. Lukashenko has sought better ties with the West amid strained relations with traditional ally Russia. Brussels lifted sanctions, imposed over Lukashenko's human rights record, in 2016 but will consider new measures this week.

A former Soviet collective farm manager, the 65-year-old Lukashenko has ruled Belarus for more than a quarter of a century but faces anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a sluggish economy and human rights.