Belarus detain opposition leader as he returns from exile

An opposition leader who ran against authoritarian Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in 2010 elections was on Tuesday detained at the border of the ex-Soviet state upon returning from exile.

Ales Mikhalevich was held at the frontier with European Union member Lithuania as he was trying to re-enter his Belarus by train.

"The border guards are looking into what they should do with me," Mikhalevich told AFP by phone.

His detention comes after Lukashenko stunned Belarus last month by pardoning six jailed opposition leaders, including a former presidential candidate, in an apparent bid to assuage criticism ahead of October's presidential poll.

Mikhalevich had vowed to return to Belarus once its main political prisoners were released.

"I am about to cross the border, I know that I will be arrested," Mikhalevich wrote on his Facebook page hours before being detained. "But one day or another, I will be freed.

"I want to live with my family. I want to live in Belarus," he told AFP separately.

The 2010 election, which saw Lukashenko re-elected to a new term, was marred by a violent crackdown on the opposition that saw most of the president's opponents jailed.

Mikhalevich was arrested along with other opposition activists. He spent some two months in a prison run by the KGB, the Belarussian security service, where he claims he was tortured.

He was released on condition he did not leave the country, but he fled to the Czech Republic in 2011.

Mikhalevich faces up to 15 years in prison for allegedly organising "mass riots" following the contested poll.

Lukashenko, 61, who has been in power since 1994, is widely expected to be re-elected to a new term next month.

His government routinely faces international criticism over its rights record, with Belarus remaining the only country in Europe to exercise the death penalty.

Source: AFP