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Born in the village of Triles , then part of the Stolbcy district in the USSR's Minsk voblast (and now in Belarus), Lebedko emerged in the 1990s as one of the leading critics of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom Lebedko, along with other opposition leaders and many western governments, considers a dictator.
Lebedko's strident opposition to Lukashenka led to increasingly bitter confrontations with the Belarusian authorities through the late 1990s and into the 2000s. He was arrested numerous times for participating in unsanctioned protests and marches; was charged with libel against Lukashenko several times; and was beaten outside his home by masked men he alleges were connected to Lukashenko. Lebedko appears to have drawn particular ire for his relatively high visibility and frequent contact with groups outside Belarus, who Lukashenko accuses of meddling in Belarus's internal affairs. In particular, one of Lebedko's arrests came shortly after he had spoken on the floor of the United States Senate and at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in October 1999 , prompting letters of protest from both bodies.
Following an October 20042004 : January February March April May June July August September October November December See also: October 2004 in sports October 31, 2004 Tabare Vazquez is elected the next president of Uruguay. Two days before the 2004 United States presidential ele election, which combined a referendum on permitting Lukashenka a third term with parliamentary elections, Lebedko led slightly over a thousand opposition protestors into the streets of MinskFor things named after Minsk, see Minsk (disambiguation Minsk ( Belarusian: , ; Russian: ) (population 1. 8 million) is the capital of Belarus and headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States. During 1919 1991 Minsk was the capital of the Byelor on October 18October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in Leap years). There are 74 days remaining. Events 1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacke and 19October 19 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 73 days remaining. Events 202 BC Battle of Zama, resulting in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal. 439 The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in N. Lebedko and other opposition leaders charged that the elections were rigged, an accusation echoed by OSCE election monitors. During the second day of protests on October 19, Lebedko was arrested along with two other opposition leaders, Nikolai Statkevich and Pavel Severinets , as well as an Associated PressThe Associated Press or AP is an American news agency that claims to be the world's oldest and largest. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, who both contribute stories to it and use material written by its staffers. As of 2004, A photographer who had been covering the protest. Lebedko's supporters claim he was severely beaten by riot police following his arrest; he ended up in the hospital, reportedly with fractured skull, broken ribs and internal injuries.