Zmitser Dashkevich: “I will continue my socio-political activities”

The former political prisoner gave his first press-conference after his release from jail.

Zmitser Dashkevich was arrested together with his colleague Eduard Lobau the day before the peaceful post-election protests, on 18 December, in a court yard in Panamarenka Street in Minsk. They were charged with beating two passers-by. However, nobody could see these people at the trial – they hid in a room and gave their testimonies through closed doors.

Dashkevich was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security penitentiary, and Lobau – 4 years in a maximum security penitentiary. At the end of the two-year term of Mr. Dashkevich a trial was held in the Hlybokaye colony where he was serving his term. As a result, he was found guilty of malignant disobedience to lawful demands of the colony administration and sentenced to another year of imprisonment, most of which he had to serve in the cell-type facility in Hrodna. He was released on 28 August, but preventive supervision was established over him. “That's why it's just conditional freedom. I can be thrown in jail again at any moment,” says the activist.

Zmithser Dashkevich received just one offficial proposal to write a petition for clemency, while being kept in Horki. “The head invited me to his office and proposed that I wrote the clemency petition, promising that I would be released. However, I refused to do it,” says the activist.

However, he received many unofficial proposals to write clemensy petitions.

At the same time, Zmitser Dashkevich does not condemn those politicians who had written petition for clemency. "It's not that important whether a person wrote it or no. The main thing is his general position, what he does afterwards,” commented the activist. He also made a statement about the former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau: “No one received such a harsh treatment as Sannikau, except, may be, for Zakharanka, Krasouski and Zavadski, who are no longer alive."

The leader of the " Young Front" activists said he planned to continue his political activities in the future.