Opposition activist Zmicier Dashkievich has been moved from Correctional Institution No. 13 in Hlybokaje to a detention center in Vitebsk, Nasta Palazhanka, the girlfriend of the Young Front leader, told.

In a closed-door trial held on August 28 in the Hlybokaje prison, the 31-year-old Dashkievich was found guilty of persistent violation of prison rules under Part One of the Criminal Code’s Article 411 and sentenced to a one-year prison term. The remaining four months of the previously imposed prison term were included in the new term.

Prisoners are regularly transferred to a different correctional facility after they are given a new sentence while behind bars, Ms. Palazhanka explained.

Hours before his transfer to Vitebsk, Mr. Dashkievich was visited by his lawyer. “They did not talk about anything special, said farewell to Hlybokaje, discussed some routine issues,” Ms. Palazhanka said.

“A transfer to a different prison is the worst thing in the prisoner’s life,” she added.

On March 24, 2011, Mr. Dashkievich was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security correctional institution on a charge of “especially malicious hooliganism”.

He was arrested in Minsk on December 18, 2010, on the eve of a scheduled large-scale post-election demonstration, for allegedly beating up two passers-by. Speaking during his trial, Mr. Dashkievich said that the incident was a provocation orchestrated by authorities and accused the two alleged victims of giving false testimony.

In September 2011, he refused an offer of freedom in exchange for asking Aliaksandr Lukashenka for a presidential pardon.

Nasha Niva