Belarus‘ political opposition has said three of its leading members have been abducted, and called for their immediate release.
The Belarusian Coordination Council said in a statement Monday that “unknown people in the center of Minsk” had abducted Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the council’s executive committee, as well as press secretary Anton Rodnenkov and executive secretary Ivan Kravtsov.
The council, which is led by main Belarusian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, is a body aimed at coordinating a peaceful and orderly transition of power in the wake of August’s disputed elections.
Its statement said Kolesnikova, Rodnenkov and Kravtsov’s “whereabouts are unknown.” A spokesperson for the council also told CNN that the organization has been unable to contact any of the trio on their mobile phones.
“At the same time, the bodies called upon in our country to protect law and order have not provided information about the whereabouts of our colleagues and deny their involvement,” the statement added.
Local news website Tut.by reported that Kolesnikova was abducted Monday morning in the capital of Belarus, citing an eyewitness named as “Anastasia.”
CNN has been unable to independently verify that the three opposition figures were abducted.
Belarusian authorities did not respond to CNN’s request for comment, and have not commented publicly on the alleged abduction. The council did not respond to CNN’s request for information why they believe that Rodnenkov and Kravtsov were abducted.
Reports of the alleged kidnappings emerged after a fourth consecutive weekend of anti-government protests in the country. Unrest erupted in Belarus shortly after its August 9 election in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a contested victory.
Lukashenko, who has ruled for 26 years and is often described as Europe’s last dictator, has remained defiant in the face of the protests.
Tikhanovskaya was the opposition candidate in the vote, which independent observers criticized as neither free nor fair. Tens of thousands of people have marched against the government in Minsk in the wake of the election.
Tikhanovskaya said in a statement released earlier Monday: “The regime is engaged in terror, there is no other name for it. The kidnapping of Maria Kolesnikova, Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov is an attempt to disrupt the work of the Coordination Council. But that won’t stop us.”
On Sunday the Coordination Council also said that another prominent activist, Olga Kolvakova was blindfolded, put into the back of a car, driven to a Belarusian border town near Poland and released into no-man’s land by the country’s special services. She crossed into Poland and was taken to Warsaw by bus.
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