Rostislav Shavel (; ; born 2 April 2001) is a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for Falko Cherkassy.

Football career

As of 2021, he last played for

Gorodeya Haradzyeya or Gorodeya is an urban-type settlement in Nyasvizh District, Minsk Region, Belarus. As of 2025, it has a population of 3,563. History The first known documental record of the village dates back to 1530. Horodziej was a privately ow ...

, becoming a free agent after the club was liquidated.

Political persecution (since 2020)

Throughout 2020 and 2021 he was arrested multiple times for participation in the peaceful protest against falsified 2020 election results. After serving multiple short-term prison sentences (15, 15 and 3 days), on June 8, 2021, by a joint statement of nine organizations, including the

Viasna Human Rights Centre The Viasna Human Rights Centre () is a human rights in Belarus, human rights organization based in Minsk, Belarus. The organization aims to provide financial and legal assistance to political prisoners and their families, and was founded in 1996 ...

, the

Belarusian Helsinki Committee The Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC; ) is a non-governmental human rights organization established in 1995 and in 2007 was the sole remaining independent human rights group in Belarus, apart from Viasna Human Rights Centre. Its goal is protectio ...

, he was recognized as a

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

. On September 22, 2021, he was given three years of

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

with restricted movement.

References

External links

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Rastsislau Shavel's page on the website of the Viasna Human Rights Centre
2001 births Living people Belarusian men's footballers Belarus men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards FC Gorodeya players Political prisoners according to Viasna Human Rights Centre 21st-century Belarusian sportsmen {{Belarus-footy-forward-stub