Belarus authorities raise pressure on protest leaders

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Belarus' authorities on Friday detained a leader of striking factory workers, raising pressure on the opposition amid massive protests against official election results that extended the 26-year rule of the country's authoritarian president.

Belarusian investigators also summoned three leading opposition activists for questioning as part of a criminal probe into the creation of a coordination council intended to facilitate the transition of power. The move follows President Alexander Lukashenko's warning that the opposition leaders could face criminal charges.

The interior minister said that Yevgeny Bokhvalov, who organized the strike at the huge Minsk Automobile Plant, was detained, but gave no further details. The factory, which makes heavy trucks, has remained on strike since Monday along with many other industrial plants across the country.

The strike has cast a tough challenge to 65-year-old Lukashenko, who had relied on blue-collar workers as his core support base throughout his iron-fisted rule.

In a bid to halt the strike, the Belarusian leader has warned that the participants would face dismissal and ordered law enforcement agencies to protect factory managers from opposition pressure.

“Most of all, Lukashenko fears the factory workers' protest, so he tries to scare strike organizers and stop the strikes," said Sergei Dylevsky, the leader of the strike-organizing committee at the Minsk Tractor Plant.

Dylevsky, a member of the opposition's Coordination Council created earlier this week to facilitate the transition of power, was summoned for interrogation along with two other council members, ex-culture minister and ambassador to France, Pavel Latushko, and lawyer Maxim Znak.

“Even if they arrest us, it will not stop the protests...