Opposition activist in Minsk region summoned to prosecutor`s office ahead of Freedom Day demonstration

Viktar Dashkevich, an activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD) party, has been summoned to show up at the Kopyl district prosecutor’s office on March 25, the day when opposition activists across Belarus are expected to flock to Minsk to take pat in a sanctioned "Dzen Voli" (Freedom Day) demonstration. 

The demonstration will mark 94 years since the proclamation of the 1918 Belarusian National Republic (BNR). 

A police officer visited Mr. Dashkevich’s home in the village of Kalodzeznaya in the Kopyl district, Minsk region, on Friday afternoon to serve him with the summons, according to the BCD press office. 

“To my question as to why I had been ordered to show up on Sunday when the prosecutor’s office is closed, he replied that the office would be open specially for me,” said Mr. Dashkevich. 

The activist said that he anyway would not be able to visit the office, because there was no bus service to Kopyl on Sundays. 

He added that the local authorities had once tried to prevent him from participating in a pro-democratic demonstration. Ahead of a "Narodny Skhod" (People`s Assembly) rally held in Minsk on October 8, he was summoned to appear at the district prosecutor’s office on that day.