The activist of youth opposition organisation ‘Malady Front’ (Young Front) has been released today after serving his term in Ivatsevichy penal colony No 22.
Eduard’s family, friends and associates including ex-political prisoner Zmitser Dashkevich and activist Volha Nikalaychyk have met him near the correctional facility, news agency BelaPAN reports.
“Lobau did not talk much and was a bit uptight,” one of the welcomers told Belsat TV. The former political prisoner said he had been repeatedly offered to ask [president Lukashenka] for pardon, but he turned down such proposals. In the colony the young man learned a trade of welder, but there was no any paid job for him there.
According to Lobau, the relations with other prisoners were ‘normal’. Nearly half his acquaintances in the colony shared his political views and some borrowed independent periodicals the political prisoners received. As far as the prison administration is concerned, they did not exert pressure on the political prisoner, he said. All the punishments inflicted on him were ‘deserved’ be him, Lobau confessed.
The activist has not had planned ahead yet. “I think I will be doing what I used to do,” he said. Lobau did not rule out that he would be engaged in political life again. He is not going to leave the country and intends to reside in the Belarusian capital.
“Over four years Eduard has got all letters from me; he has not been deprived of parcels or meetings. If one compares our situation to those of other political prisoners, we are lucky and I should not complain. And I have nothing to blame the prison administration for,” Maryna Lobava, Eduard’s mother, said.
“I do not fear that Eduard will be engaged in social and political activity again; I think it is our authorities and their inappropriate actions that one should be wary of,” she added.
Eduard Lobau was born in Vilnius. After serving in the army (Air Forces) Eduard joined Malady Front and became leader of its Minsk branch.
Eduard Lobau and Zmitser Dashkevich were detained on December 18, 2010; they were accused of beating two local residents. Dashkevich and Lobau expressed strong dissent and insisted on their not knowing the alleged victims but the both 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 minimum security penal colony, Eduard Lobau – to four years of a medium security penal colony. Opposition activists and human rights defenders considered the detention as part of police preventive action performed before the 2010 presidential election. International human rights organisations recognised them political prisoners.
There are still five political prisoners in Belarus – ex-presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich and activists Mikalai Dziadok, Ihar Alinevich, Yauhen Vaskovich, Artsiom Prakapenka.
