The leader of Young Front will have to serve the rest of his term in Hrodna prison No 1, his fiancee Nasta Palazhanka was informed.
“Prison officials told me that Zmitser is expected to arrive on November 7 or 8. But as November, the 7th is a national holiday I doubt that they will tell if he has been taken to them or not. In my opinion it will become known in the morning of November 8,” Palazhanka believes.
Dashkevich was to be sent by prisoner transport on October 31 but till today nobody has known where he was being kept.
Andrey Bandarenka, head of human rights organisation Platform, believes that Zmitser will be better treated in Hrodna.
“In the soviet times it [Hrodna prison No 1] was a well-known replacement depot for dangerous recidivists. Now its buildings are old. Naturally, they are not in good condition. But in comparison to Zhodzina prison it is distinguished by its administration’s better attitude to prisoners, ” the human rights defender stressed.
Zmitser Dashkevich and another activist of the Young Front Eduard Lobau were detained on December 18, 2010. Opposition activists and human rights defenders consider this detention as part of police preventive action performed before the 2010 presidential election. Dashkevich and Lobau were adjudged guilty of especially malignant hooliganism (Article 339, part 3 of the Criminal Code). On March 24, 2011 Zmitser Dashkevich was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony. In September, 2011 the activist was offered to file a petition for pardon addressed to Alexander Lukashenka but he rejected this proposal.
He was to go at liberty in December, 2012 but on August 28 Hlybokaye district court in camera acknowledged Dashkevich guilty of “gross disobedience to orders of correctional institution administration”. Four months which Dashkevich was to serve under the first sentence was included in the new one. Thus, now Zmitser Dashkevich is expected to be released on August 28, 2012.
Belsat
