Seventeen people, including six Belarusian presidential candidates, are facing lengthy jail terms for spearheading protests against the re-election of long-standing President Alexander Lukashenko.
The list includes opposition candidates Vladimir Neklyayev, Andrei Sannikov, Grigory Kostusev, Alexei Mikhalevich, Vitaly Rymashevsky and Nikolai Statkevich, and also Sannikov's wife, journalist Irina Khalip, Belarus's Vesna human rights center said on Wednesday.
The seventeen detainees are being probed over the "mass disturbances" and face charges carrying a maximum of 15 years in jail.
More than 600 people were sentenced from five to 15 days in jail for their involvement in a demonstration of over 10,000 people in central Minsk on Sunday. The unrest came as news emerged that Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by the West, had won 79.7 percent of the vote on Sunday.
Dozens were injured as a number of demonstrators tried to storm parliament.
MOSCOW, December 22 (RIA Novosti)
