Minsk, Belarus ? A court sentenced nearly two dozens protesters Monday to jail terms of three to 15 days for participating in an anti-government demonstration inspired by the upheaval in Kyrgyzstan.

Nearly 1,000 people rallied outside the offices of President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday demanding the resignation of the authoritarian leader who has quashed dissent and opposition parties in the former Soviet republic.

Truncheon-wielding riot police eventually beat back the unauthorized rally, arresting 34 and leaving several with serious head injuries.

The Minsk central district court convicted 20 protesters on charges including organizing or participating in mass actions intended to violate social order. Rally organizers, who were scheduled to be sentenced later, could face up to three years in prison.

Opposition leaders and rights activists criticized the sentences.

“Repression will not stop the democratic process in Belarus,” said opposition leader Vyacheslav Sivchik, who was sentenced to 15-days in prison for his role in the rally.

The rally came one day after the climax of public protests in Kyrgyzstan that forced Akayev to flee. The Central Asian country was the third former Soviet republic in the past 18 months — after Georgia and Ukraine — to see popular protests bring down long-entrenched leaders widely accused of corruption.

Lukashenko, who has ruled this nation of 10 million for a decade, came under strong international criticism last year for a referendum that scrapped presidential term limits and gave him the go-ahead to seek a third term in 2006.