The leader of the Young Front, a youth opposition group, was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment in a minimum-security penal colony for alleged beating of passers-by.
Eduard Lobau and Zmitser Dashkevich were attacked by a group of unknown men a day before the presidential elections. After short scuffling police showed up and arrested Dashkievich and Lobau, accusing them of beating two inhabitants of Minsk. According to the opposition members this whole issue had a political character. The goal was to prevent the two men from participating in the demonstration to be held the following day.
Dashkevich widely participated in protest actions after the 2006 presidential elections and consequently was sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment in a penal colony. In January, 2008 he went at large.
Zmitser Dashkevich was arrested on December 18, 2010 and later sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment for «malicious hooliganism» (Article 339, part 3 of the Criminal Code). At the current moment he is kept in penal colony №13 in Hlybokaye. Zmitser Dashkevich was repeatedly put in a punishment isolation cell of the penal colony. In September, 2011 the activist was offered to file a petition for pardon addressed to Alexander Lukashenka but he rejected the proposal.
