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Opposition activist Frantskevich to be under “preventive police supervision” after release from prison

Alyaksandr Frantskevich, a young opposition activist who is widely believed to be a political prisoner, will be placed under six-month “preventive police supervision” after his release from prison later this week, human rights defender Anastasiya Loyka told BelaPAN.

The exact terms of the police supervision are not yet known, according to the activist.

Ms. Loyka confirmed that Mr. Frantskevich would be released from prison on September 3.

In May 2011, Mr. Frantskevich, currently 23, and his co-defendants, Ihar Alinevich and Mikalay Dzyadok, were found guilty of a series of Molotov cocktail attacks on various establishments, including the Russian embassy and the Belarusian Armed Forces' General Staff compound in Minsk, in 2009 and 2010.

Mr. Alinevich was sentenced to eight years, Mr. Dzyadok to four and a half years, and Mr. Frantskevich to three years in a medium-security correctional institution.

The two other co-defendants in the so-called anarchists’ case, Maksim Vetkin and Yawhen Selivonchyk, were sentenced to four years and one year and a half in an open-type correctional institution, respectively.