English

Zmitser Dashkevich removed from Vitsyebsk jail

Zmitser Dashkevich has been removed from a detention center in Vitsyebsk, Anastasiya Palazhanka, the girlfriend of the imprisoned leader of an opposition youth group called Malady Front, told BelaPAN.

"When the lawyer and I arrived at the detention center [on September 19], we were told that Zmitser Dashkevich was no longer held there," said Ms. Palazhanka, who is deputy chair of Malady Front.

"We know that he received newspapers on the morning of September 18, which means that he was still in the jail on that day," she added.

The administration of the detention center refused to tell the lawyer to what correctional facility Mr. Dashkevich had been moved. "After his transfer is over, his father is to receive a notice saying where Zmitser is," Mr. Palazhanka said.

Mr. Dashkevich was moved to the jail from Correctional Institution No. 13 in Hlybokaye earlier this month.

In a closed-door trial held on August 28 in the Hlybokaye prison, the 31-year-old Dashkevich was found guilty of persistent violation of prison rules under Part One of the Criminal Code’s Article 411 and sentenced to a one-year prison term. The remaining four months of the previously imposed prison term were included in the new term.

On March 24, 2011, Mr. Dashkevich was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security correctional institution on a charge 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.