Zmitser Dashkevich: They just gave me a longer chain

A former political prisoner says what the new police supervision means.

The police said to the Young Front leader today that the preventive supervision was replaced with another type of supervision for one year. Dashkevich told charter97.org how it would change his life.

– No one knows exactly what this new type of supervision means. I discussed it my lawyer, because I am going to appeal against it in a court. The supervision orders to warn the police if you go abroad for more than a month or change your job. I don't understand why I should warn them. It's senseless.

– Have anything improved?

– I was happy that I finally became free, but it soon turned out that they just gave me a longer chain. It's good that now I am allowed to go outside Minsk. Three violations lead to the return of the preventive supervision. Three more violations can lead to a prison term. They say the restrictions were imposed for a year. But I am pessimistic about it, taking into account that the authorities can arrest anyone for any reason...

Dashkevich was detained on December 18, 2010, the day before the presidential election. He was charged with beating two men. Human rights defenders say it was a preventive measure to isolate him ahead of the election. Dashkevich was declared a political prisoner. In March 2011, Dashkevich was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. In August 2012, an additional year was added to his prison term for “persistent failure to obey prison rules”. Dashkevich spent 986 days in prison. He was released in late August 2013 and placed under preventive supervision, which was prolonged several times. On June 5, 2014, the preventive supervision was prolonged for three months. It was lifted by Minsk's Pershamaiski district court on September 10.