The Minsk city court on Monday refused to release Russian nationals detained in the Belarusian capital during riots after the country's presidential elections.
More than 600 protesters, including 11 Russians, were detained and many were injured as Belarusian police brutally dispersed the demonstration when protesters tried to storm parliament following the announcement by the Central Electoral Commission that authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko had won with 79.6% of the vote.
One of the Russian detainees, Alexander Baranov, who was jailed for 10 days, had appealed his detention, saying he had nothing to do with the protests and had happened to be in the area quite by chance, standing at a bus stop as he was going to meet his girlfriend.
The Russian Embassy in Minsk, which previously demanded the release of all Russian detainees, said it will appeal the court ruling.
"The Embassy is not satisfied with the outcome and is currently preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court to review the case of the Russian detainees," Embassy spokesman Vadim Gusev said.
MINSK, December 27 (RIA Novosti)
