MINSK -- Noted Belarusian designer Anatol Lazar has reportedly been detained by police amid an ongoing crackdown.
Human rights activist Alyaksandr Kaputski said that the co-founder of the website Tuzin hitou (A Dozen Hits) and director of Adliha (Thaw) advertisement studio was detained on unspecified charges.
Lazar, whose nickname is Wiecier Mechaniczny, was detained after police searched his home and confiscated his computer and telephone, Kaputski said on September 11.
In January last year, Lazar was briefly arrested along with several book publishers amid a crackdown on protests challenging the official results of the August 2020 presidential poll that named authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner.
Many in Belarus have faced trials since the disputed presidential election, with authorities brutally suppressing dissent in any form.
On September 12, a court in the western city of Baranavichy handed a parole-like three-year sentence to a disabled activist, Uladzislau Rabich, after finding him guilty of insulting Lukashenka.
Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's rule. Thousands have been detained during countrywide protests and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.
Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994, has refused to negotiate with the opposition and many of its leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country.
The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.
