News agencies reported that scores of people, including 10 journalists, were taken away by riot police on Saturday, a day after authorities told organisers the event would be illegal. The wide-scale detentions were also reported by Viasna, a human rights group, which also said that police had earlier raided its offices and briefly detained about 60 activists. Strongman President Alyaksandr Lukashenka had announced a rare concession the previous night in an effort to thwart a snowballing protest movement: He would suspend for a year the "social parasite" tax on unemployed Belarusians that had sparked rare street protests all around the country. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that while he had suspended the tax for a year, he would not do away with it completely as he believed it encouraged discipline among the unemployed. Many protesters were middle-aged and elderly people who complained there was no work for them.
Thousands of people protest in Minsk, Belarus, despite a ban on protests, against a so-called "social parasites" tax on the unemployed.