: Belarusian Authorities Intensify Pressure on Protesters #WorldNEWS MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Authorities in Belarus on Tuesday steadily cranked up the pressure on protesters pushing for the resignation

Belarusian Authorities Intensify Pressure on Protesters #WorldNEWS
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Authorities in Belarus on Tuesday steadily cranked up the pressure on protesters pushing for the resignation of the countrys authoritarian leader, jailing several opposition activists, summoning others for questioning and selectively ordering dozens of demonstrators to appear in court. Nevertheless, the protests continued.
Courts in Minsk handed 10-day sentences to two members of a council that opposition activists established last week to negotiate a transition of power following President Alexander Lukashenkos winning a sixth term in an election that critics contend was rigged.
Lukashenko has firmly rebuffed offers of dialogue from the Coordination Council, which rejects the official results of the Aug. 9 vote that extended his 26-year rule.

On Tuesday, council members Sergei Dylevsky and Olga Kovalkova were each sentenced to 10 days in jail on charges of organizing an unsanctioned protest.
Pavel Latushko, a former culture minister and diplomat who joined the opposition council, was summoned for questioning over his role in the opposition body.
“They are trying to push me out of the country,” Latushko told The Associated Press. “I have been threatened with arrest and prison violence, but Im not planning to leave Belarus. ”
Belarus’ most famous writer, Svetlana Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, also received a summons after joining the council.
Lukashenko has dismissed the protesters who have been demonstrating for over two weeks as Western puppets and threatened the council members with criminal charges for attempting to create what he described as a parallel government. Prosecutors opened a criminal inquiry on charges of undermining national security, an allegation rejected by the council.
“The Coordination Council isnt attempting to take power,” Latushko said. “All we want is to try to find a solution for the political crisis. ”
On Tuesday, hundreds of teachers and academic researchers rallied in Minsk in a show of solidarity with protesters as the demonstrations entered their 17th day.
As evening came, several thousand rallied on central Independence Square, despite heavy rain, to press for Lukashenkos resignation.
“He managed to set everyone against himself,” said 30-year-old sales clerk Tatyana Gubarevskaya who turned up for the rally with her husband. “I supported Lukashenko in the past, but now I see that his authority hinges entirely on the police, he has stopped hearing his people. ”
Lyudmila Krylovich, a conductor at the Belarus State Philharmonic, said that “Lukashenko behaves like a feudal lord who sees people as his property.