Dzyadok sentenced to one more year in prison

The term of imprisonment has been extended by one year for the political prisoner.

Today the criminal case of the political prisoner Mikalai Dzyadok was tried in Mahilyou prison. He was charged with violation of the rules of serving the sentence under Article 411 of the Criminal Code of Belarus.

Dzydok was charged with 16 violations of prison rules, the most serious of which was wearing sportswear suit instead of prison uniform, Viasna human rights centre informs.

The prosecutor asked the court to punish Mikalai Dzyadok by 1 year in a maximum security penal colony. It is a maximum term under this article. As a result, Judge Ihar Shvedau sentenced the political prisoner to one more year in prison. Besides, he is to serve four days out of his four-year term.

Dzyadok was imprisoned on September 3, 2010. On May 27, 2011 the court of Zavadski district of Minsk sentenced him to 4.5 years in a maximum security penal colony under Article 339 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (malicious hooliganism). On December 5, 2012 by the ruling of the court the conditions of serving the sentence were harshened for Dzyadok, and Mikalai was transferred from the colony #17 in Shklou into prison #4 in Mahilyou.

As human rights activists believe, the grounds for the ruling to Dzyadok was his participation in the peaceful protest rally outside the Defence Ministry against joint Russian-Belarusian military drills.

Dzyadok was to be released on March 3, 2015 when his term for serving punishment was to end.

Human rights watchdogs note that in recent month the authorities of Belarus stepped up crackdown on opposition, journalists and small businessmen. New political prisoners have appeared, preventive arrests of public activists have become more frequent, a number of new repressive laws against mass media have been adopted, pressure on small business is growing. Experts believe the increase in crackdown is related to the fact that many European officials close their eyes to human rights violations in Belarus and try to start “a dialogue” with the dictator.