On the eve of Sunday's presidential elections in Belarus, Foreign Policy profiled eight brave members of the political opposition: intellectuals, artists, journalists, and activists who dared to speak out against the policies of President Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, is widely considered Europe's last dictator; he has for 16 years brutally cracked down on opposition candidates and sympathizers -- jailing and murdering many potential challengers and shuttering independent media.

As the polls closed on Sunday night at around 8 pm, thousands of supporters of the two main opposition candidates began to walk down the main streets of Belarus's capital, Minsk, to gather in the central square. Between 11 pm and midnight, several hundred people were detained by police and forced into packed police buses, then driven to a KGB prison near Minsk. Many were also beaten.

Most of the photos that appear in this photo essay were taken in Minsk last Thursday by award-winning photographer Andrei Liankevich. Liankevich was also present in the city's main square on Sunday night, when his camera was confiscated and  broken by police. At least six of the men and women profiled by FP have since been detained, beaten, or gone missing. In the following pages, we update their stories.

AFP/Getty Images

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