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Dashkevich refuses to speak to investigators

 

Imprisoned opposition activist Zmitser Dashkevich has refused to answer any questions from officers investigating a new criminal case against him and waived his right to legal counsel, his fiancee, Malady Front Deputy Chairperson Anastasiya Palazhanka, told BelaPAN on Friday.

Mr. Dashkevich’s lawyer visited him in Correctional Institution No. 13 in Hlybokaye earlier in the day.

“Zmitser knows about the new criminal case,” said Ms. Palazhanka. “At what was supposed to become his first interrogation, he refused to speak, because he does not view the case as either serious or legitimate.”

Mr. Dashkevich, leader of Malady Front, who turned 31 on July 20, is now in a regular unit, not disciplinary detention, according to Mr. Palazhanka. “So, he may read letters and postcards sent to him on the occasion of his birthday,” she said, adding that he had received more than 100 letters and 50 postcards greeting him on his birthday.

On March 24, 2011, a judge of the Maskowski District Court in Minsk sentenced Zmitser Dashkevich, leader of an unregistered opposition youth organization Malady Front, to two years in a minimum-security correctional institution, finding him guilty of "especially malicious hooliganism."

He was arrested in Minsk on December 18, 2010, 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. In September 2011, he refused an offer of freedom in exchange for asking Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a presidential pardon.

In February 2012, Mr. Dashkevich was placed in disciplinary confinement twice. He had previously been subjected to such punishment at least 10 times.

Earlier this week, it became known that the man had been charged with persistently disobeying the prison administration`s orders, a charge that may lead to the extension of his prison sentence by one year. // BelaPAN