The total number of detainees at the opposition rally on March 25 in Minsk may be about one thousand people. This was reported in Facebook by the Ukrainian journalist Konstantin Reutsky, who covered the events in the Belarusian capital.

"According to the data, which is still being specified, about a thousand people were detained today. Activists, journalists, human rights activists, just random passers-by. As of now, the cordon has been removed, the police, along with all their amazing equipment, drove off, the central metro stations opened. Evening of ordinary Saturday, "Reutsky said..

The human rights center "Viasna", which cites its data in view of the confirmed data, writes that there are more than 300 detainees on their list.

Official data on the number of detainees and the grounds for detention are not yet available.

According to the Belorussian edition of Radio Liberty, people who were detained by Belarusian security officials on March 25 in the office of the organization Viasna are now at large. These people were detained even before the start of the action announced at 14:00 local time.

In Minsk, the opposition tried to celebrate Freedom Day on March 25, but journalists were most likely to get to the pre-announced gathering place near the National Academy of Sciences. Potential participants in the action were stopped by police cordons.

After that, up to a thousand activists began to move to the center of Minsk from another location, but were soon stopped by the police, mass detentions took place. Correspondent Radyo Liberty Valery Kalinovsky compared the number of detainees he believed to be several hundred, with detentions during the protests of 2006 and 2010.