A court in Belarus jailed up to 600 people from 5 to 15 days for participating in protests that followed the disputed elections which lead to the re-election of the President Alexander Lukashenko.
 
"The sentences were issued against more than 580 people in all," the news agency quoted top Minsk police official, Leonid Farmagei, as saying.
"For the most part, these were administrative arrests of between five and 15 days in prison," Farmagei said.
The police official did not specify how many people faced more serious charges.

Lukashenko vowed Monday to come down hard on all those responsible for taking part in Sunday's unsanctioned rally against his regime.
The authoritarian president was re-elected to a fourth term with nearly 80 percent of the ballot, with his nearest challenger receiving less than three percent of the vote.
The opposition said that Lukashenko has rigged the vote, as they demonstrated on Sunday to protest the results.

The police also detained seven of the nine opposition figures, at least two of whom were reported Monday to be undergoing interrogation at the headquarters in Minsk of the country's security service -- still called the KGB.
Media reports also said that the police had detained about a dozen reporters.