Authorities extend detention of sports journalist Aliaksandr Ivulin by another month

Mr. Ivulin, who plays for FC Krumkačy Min­sk in Belarus’ sec­ond divi­sion and has a pop­u­lar YouTube chan­nel focus­ing on soc­cer, has already been in cus­tody for five months.

He was arrest­ed in his Min­sk home on June 3 and sen­tenced to 30 days in jail the fol­low­ing day on a charge of stag­ing an unau­tho­rized demon­stra­tion over a white-red-white-flag in a win­dow of his apart­ment.

He was not released on com­ple­tion of his jail sen­tence, as he was charged under Part One the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 342, which penal­izes “orga­niz­ing or tak­ing an active part in group actions gross­ly dis­turb­ing pub­lic order.” He was trans­ferred to Pre­tri­al Deten­tion No. 1 in Min­sk.