A protester arrested in Belarus for wearing a T-shirt criticising authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has been freed after five days in jail.

Leonid Smovzh, a 53-year-old railway engineer, said he was given no heat, light or food for two of those days.

He was arrested after a protest on Sunday for wearing a T-shirt on which he had written "For Belarus without Lukashenko." On the back it said "For Belarus without dictatorship."

Mr Lukashenko has ruled the former Soviet republic for 20 years and has shown little tolerance for dissent.

Mr Smovzh said he wore the shirt so he would not be ashamed to look his grandchildren in the eye when they asked, "what did you do for us?"

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.