Yaraslau Pisarenka

Affiliated media: YouTube project ChestnOK, Journalist

Incident date: June 4, 2021

Attack type:

• Criminal/administrative prosecution excluding (1), (2) and (3)

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

The Frunzensky District Court arrested sports journalist Aliaksandr Ivulin for 30 days under the article on repeated illegal picketing (Part 3 of Article 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus). The police report claimed that there was a flag hanging on the window in his flat. Ivulin said in court that there was no flag on the window during the search and petitioned to call witnesses, but the judge rejected the journalist’s request. Yaraslau Pisarenka, Ivulin’s colleague from the Youtube channel ChestnOK, was arrested for 15 days under Part 1 of Article 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus. The law enforcers detained Ivulin and Pisarenka the day before, on June 3: they searched their flat and then took the journalists to an unknown location. Later, it turned out that they were in the temporary detention center on Akrestsina.