Zmitser Dashkevich

Date of Arrest: 
18/12/2011
Sentence: 
2 years in a minimal-security correctional facility
Court: 
Maskousky District Court of Minsk
State prosecutor: 
deputy district attorney Kiryl Mazouka
Name of the judge: 
Alena Shylko
Date: 
24/03/2011
Serves at: 
CF 13, Viciebsk Region, city of Hlybokae , Soviet street 205, 211791

Zmitser was born on July 20, 1981, in the village of Kushnery, Ivatsevichi District, Brest region. In the early childhood he also lived in the Village Yagodnoe, in Russia’s Far East region. Then the family moved to Belarus to the town of Staryia Darohi, where he finished Secondary School 2. Zmitser was a student in Hrodna Agricultural Institute. In 2001 Zmitser joined the youth national movement Young Front. In the fall of 2001 he was one of the protesters in defense of Kurapaty – a site of mass execution that Minsk authorities planned to destroy to make way for a city highway. Zmitser was the head of the Minsk chapter of the Young Front. He actively participated and organized numerous events and protests under the banner of Belarusian democratic forces. Later Zmitser attended Vilnius Pedagogical University majoring in Slavic Studies.
 
Due to his political activities Zmitser was arrested on numerous occasions. In 2004 he participated in the protest against the referendum allowing President Lukashenka to remain in power for a third term, and was elected as a head of the Young Front of Minsk. During election campaign 2006 Zmitser was working on the Aliaksandar Milinkevich’s team. He was one of the organizers of the protests and one of the leaders of the oppositional tent camp on the Kastrychnitskaya Square. In September 2006 Zmitser was arrested and charged with the “activity in the name of unregistered organization” under Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison.
 
A year later Zmitser refused to testify against a sixteen year old Young Front activist from Salihorsk – Ivan Shyla – and became a suspect in a new criminal case that could have added another six months to his sentence. However, due to the pressure from the international community the court only ordered a fine equal to sixty base salaries (1.860.000 Belarusian rubles). At that point Amnesty International declared Zmitser a prisoner of conscience. In 2007 Zmitser was nominated for a prestigious Robert Kennedy award.
 
On December 18, 2010, Zmitser was arrested on the street and together with Eduard Lobau is charged under the Article on “hooliganism.” Zmitser was held in the Zhodzina Detention Centre and then Valdarsky Street one. On March 24, 2011, Maskousky District Court of Minsk sentenced Zmitser to two years in a minimal-security correctional facility.