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Supporters say poet beaten during protests and imprisoned 'could be dead for all we know'
Fears are growing for two presidential candidates beaten by riot police and imprisoned in a brutal crackdown after disputed elections in Belarus.
Lawyers have been denied access to Vladimir Neklyayev, a 64-year old poet, who was knocked unconscious during demonstrations on Sunday and dragged from his hospital bed to a KGB prison a few hours later.
"Neklyayev was badly beaten," said Tatyana Revyako of Viasna, a human rights group which is co-ordinating legal help to arrested demonstrators. "The fact we are not allowed to see him is extremely alarming and suspicious. He could be dead for all we know."
Andrei Sannikov, 56, who officially came second in the vote with 2.4%, was also beaten as he was arrested on Sunday evening, according to witnesses.
His lawyer, Pavel Sapelko, who visited him at the KGB's isolation unit, known as Amerikanka, in Minsk on Monday, said he looked "a terrible sight".
"His leg is injured – either badly bruised or dislocated – and he is not receiving proper medical attention," Sapelko said. "He was put in a cell designated for three people but there are four of them in there and he is forced to sleep on a sheet of wood on the floor."
Belarus — often referred to as "the last dictatorship in the heart of Europe" – has been run for 16 years by Alexander Lukashenko, 56, a strongman who has routinely crushed political dissent.
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters flooded into central Minsk on Sunday after election results showed Lukashenko winning* 80% of the vote. A central square was left spattered with blood after baton-wielding police dispersed the crowds.
On Monday and Tuesday more than 600 protesters were sentenced to 10 to 15 days in prison and at least 19 people – including five presidential candidates – are in custody facing up to 15 years in jail on charges of "organising mass disorder".
Opposition supporters say the prosecutions are political. EU countries and the US have condemned the election result as unfair and called for the detainees' release.
Prosecutors have yet to charge any of the detained leaders, but Anatoly Kuleshov, the interior minister, said earlier this week: "Everyone will get what they deserve, according to their role, their actions. No one will go unpunished." He said the detainees felt "absolutely healthy and normal".
Lukashenko has called the protesters "bandits" and praised police for their efficiency.
Opposition activists claim provocateurs in the crowds broke windows and doors in a central government building to justify the crackdown. A video circulating on the internet appears to show police loading protesters into a van, but releasing a man they recognise while shouting to each other, "Look out for ours."
Sannikov's sister, Irina, said: "This is not like the student protests in London when there's a confrontation, a few arrests and then people are released. My brother – an innocent, peaceful man – could stay in prison for 15 years. The world needs to take notice."
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