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Lawyer Lyudmila Kazak in conversation with the father of opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova at a hearing in a Minsk court
Photo:
Natalia Fedosenko / imago images / ITAR-TASS
The lawyer for the Belarusian opposition politician Maria Kolesnikova, Lyudmila Kazak, has been arrested.
She was missing on Thursday and the contact had broken off, her lawyer colleague told the online portal Tut.by.
The police confirmed her arrest later that day.
According to her lawyers, she is facing charges for attending an unauthorized rally and resisting a police officer.
A court hearing on Kazak's case began on Friday, according to Belarusian media.
She represented Maria Kolesnikova, one of the leading figures in the opposition movement in Belarus.
At the beginning of September, Kolesnikova was dragged into a car by strangers in downtown Minsk.
Several other members of the Coordination Council had previously been arrested, left or forced to leave, including the presidential candidate Svetlana Tichanovskaya.
She fled to the EU country Lithuania after the presidential election.
Tens of thousands of Belarusians have been protesting against President Alexander Lukashenko for weeks.
The security forces take massive action against the demonstrators.
Lukashenko reportedly received 80.1 percent of the vote and declared himself the winner.
The opposition, however, considers Svetlana Tichanovskaya to be the real winner.
The vote is internationally criticized as grossly falsified - the EU, the USA and other countries do not recognize the result officially mentioned.
In the meantime, Lukashenko was surprisingly sworn in.
In August, the EU foreign ministers decided in principle to take punitive measures against those responsible.
In the meantime, there is also a list of 40 people who should be blocked from entering the country and blocked accounts.
However, the member state of Cyprus has so far blocked the necessary unanimous decision to put the sanctions into force.
The country wants to get the EU to take punitive measures against Turkey at the same time.
Cyprus is concerned with responding to Turkish gas explorations in the eastern Mediterranean.
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mst / AP
