English

Imprisoned opposition activist Dashkevich meets with lawyer

Imprisoned opposition activist Zmitser Dashkevich met with his lawyer in Correctional Institution No. 9 on August 24.

The meeting came after a number of the lawyer's previous requests to be allowed to visit the 30-year-old leader of an opposition youth group called Malady Front had been rejected by the administration of the Horki-based prison.

As Anastasiya Palazhanka, Mr. Dashkevich's fiancee and deputy chair of Malady Front, told BelaPAN, the imprisoned activist handed the lawyer his complaints about mistreatment on the part of the prison administration. "Apart from this, Dashkevich said that he was targeted by pressure and provocations on the part of fellow inmates," she said.

The complaints will be submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office, the interior ministry's corrections and internal security departments, and other government institutions.

Earlier this month, opposition activists staged a demonstration in front of the correctional institution to protest the administration's repeated refusals to allow Mr. Dashkevich to meet with his lawyer. The situation prompted Ms. Palazhanka to urge the Prosecutor General's Office to institute criminal proceedings against prison administrators.

On March 24, a judge of the Maskowski District Court in Minsk sentenced Mr. Dashkevich to two years in a minimum-security correctional institution, finding him guilty of "especially malicious hooliganism."

He was arrested in Minsk on December 18, on the eve of a scheduled large-scale post-election demonstration, for allegedly beating up two passers-by.

Speaking during his trial, Mr. Dashkevich said that the incident was a provocation orchestrated by authorities and accused the two alleged victims of giving false testimony. //BelaPAN