Activists locked in jail for 31 thousand hockey periods during championship

There are 25 players in Belarus national hockey team. Almost the same number of opposition activists has already been detained.

"There have always been preventive detentions. I have never seen so many activists to be arrested before,” human rights defender Nasta Loika said.

While the whole world will be watching hockey, 27 people detained before the championship may have to play cards in Akrestsina detention centre.

All of them together will spend 432 days in jail. It is as long as 10368 hours of being sent off the field in hockey. You could play 5184 matches in this time. Our national hockey team has played 10 times less during the whole period of its existence.

Some activists will be released before the end of the championship. But it may be changed.

"People will be released during the championship. However, we have already witnessed many times that activists who are released during some event can be easily detained again. A new report may be drawn up and they will be jailed again. It may also happen now.”

Human rights activists admit that they may be unaware of the exact number of the detained. Furthermore, the number of people the police are looking for now is twice bigger than the number of those who have already been jailed. They have been ordered to detain all the people on their list.

"Their task is to detained certain information groups and activists. They will have to present a report about their work. That is why the detentions are very different. The only thing they have in common is civil activity and spontaneity. All the reports are rigged.”

Pavel Vinahradau did not even doubt that he would be jailed. That is why he left for Byaroza long before the championship to be able to watch it on TV.

There are sweepstakes on the Internet now. 1141 people have already staked on the activists who will be detained first. 3 people from the list are already in jail, 2 have been released and one is wanted. The leader of the sweepstakes is Pavel Vinahradau followed by Zmitser Dashkevich (he is in jail) and Illya Dabratvor.

The number of voters has decreased since the detentions began, the creators of ‘the sweepstakes’ claim. It was a joke, but the forecasts have become real…

The list of the detained is being updated. You can find the latest information here.