Sports journalist sentenced to 15 days in jail over “extremist” content

Offi­cers of the inte­ri­or ministry’s orga­nized crime and cor­rup­tion depart­ment, which has played a cen­tral role in the government’s crack­down on polit­i­cal oppo­nents, searched Mr. Masloŭski’s apart­ment before arrest­ing him.

The jour­nal­ist was placed in the deten­tion cen­ter on Akresci­na Street in Min­sk.

A pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nel lat­er pub­lished a video of an osten­si­bly repen­tant Mr. Masloŭs­ki speak­ing about the sports news website’s alleged­ly pro-oppo­si­tion edi­to­r­i­al pol­i­cy fol­low­ing the dis­put­ed August 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and regret­ting his par­tic­i­pa­tion in post-elec­tion protests.

Mr. Masloŭs­ki, a 37-year-old father-of-two, joined the by.tribuna.com team in 2010 and quit the job in July 2021.

Mak­sim Bier­azin­s­ki, head of the site who is cur­rent­ly stay­ing abroad, had his Min­sk apart­ment searched on Sep­tem­ber 1.

As a result of the search, a computer’s hard dri­ve, some mem­o­ry sticks, white and red wrist­bands, a mag­net bear­ing the image of Paho­nia, Belarus’ his­tor­i­cal­ly nation­al coat of arms, and a base­ball bat fea­tur­ing the Tribuna.com logo were seized.

Ali­ak­san­dr Ivulin, a by.tribuna.com jour­nal­ist, was arrest­ed at his Min­sk home on June 3 and sen­tenced to 30 days in jail the fol­low­ing day on a charge of hold­ing an unau­tho­rized protest.

He was not released on com­ple­tion of his jail sen­tence. Instead, he was put in cus­tody and charged under Part One of the Crim­i­nal Code’s Arti­cle 342, which penal­izes “orga­niz­ing or tak­ing an active part in group actions gross­ly dis­turb­ing pub­lic order.”

Mr. Ivulin is cur­rent­ly held in Pre­tri­al Deten­tion Cen­ter No. 1 on Val­adarska­ha Street in Min­sk.