This article by Alan Dymock is published by Rugby World. Here’s an excerpt:

After a long night with the lights on, you could expect an alarm call of the national anthem blaring out. If there was any relief during the imprisonment, the expected beating never came, but over ten long days Mariya Shakuro had cockroaches for cellmates, just two showers and only two walks at 20 minutes a stroll. Hardly a fitness regime fit for the captain of the Belarus women’s sevens and beach rugby sides. 

This was the punishment for daring to protest against president Alexander Lukashenko’s regime – often referred to as Europe’s ‘last dictatorship’. 

“I was arrested at a Sunday protest on 11 October (2020),” Shakuro tells Rugby World. “All protests are illegal in Belarus.

Read the full article here.