English

Zmitser Dashkevich released from prison

Zmitser Dashkevich, chairman of an opposition youth organization called Malady Front (Young Front), was released from a prison in Hrodna at 6:20 a.m. on Wednesday, BelaPAN said.

The 32-year-old activist, who spent two years and eight months behind bars, was met by a crowd of some 50 people at the prison gate, including his wife Anastasiya and fellow Malady Front members.

Talking to reporters outside the prison, Mr. Dashkevich said that he ate his last breakfast in the prison at 5:30 a.m. As he left the facility, prison guards reportedly told him, "If anything happens, there will always be room for you Dashkevich here."

The activist said that he was aware that political opponents of Alyaksandr Lukashenka may be sent back to prison at any time. He referred to the case of post-election protester Uladzimir Yaromenak, who was sentenced to three months in jail earlier this month.

Mr. Dashkevich expressed gratitude to the crowd for their support and announced that he would continue engaging in politics. "I will do what I did," he said.

He described his prison conditions as acceptable. "It's very important to a person held in prison to be aware that there are people outside who support him and continue his cause," he said, adding that he had received many letters.

Mr. Dashkevich confirmed that he would be under preventive police supervision for the next six months. In particular, he will be required to stay at home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The activist is scheduled to meet with reporters in the Minsk office of the Belarusian Popular Front on August 29.

Zmitser Dashkevich 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.

On March 24, 2011, he was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security correctional institution on a charge of "especially malicious hooliganism."

In September 2011, he refused an offer of freedom in exchange for asking Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a presidential pardon.

Mr. Dashkevich was repeatedly placed in disciplinary confinement and transferred to other prisons for allegedly violating prison rules. As a result of two trials, he had his prison term extended to August 28, 2013, and ended up in a cell-type prison in Hrodna.