Herman Sushkevich was one of the four young men accused of participation in the March of Freedom, a large opposition march, which took place on 17 October 1999 in Minsk. During the march demonstrators several times clashed with militia and internal troops. Four activists were accused of throwing stones in direction of officers. Sushkevich was at that time 19 years old, and was a student of  Informatics and Radioelectronics at the Belarusian State University. He was an activist of the Young Front.

Chronicle of repression

Herman Sushkevich  was arrested along with Hleb Dohil and Andriej Valobuyev near the Victory Square metro station. The three were taken to the militia station, from where Herman was transferred to Minsk custody suite. Then he was transferred to the Volodarka detention center.

On 27 October he was accused under the article 186, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus and was sentenced to imprisonment, he was facing the possibility of an actual jail sentence of up to five years in prison. Soon after, the sentence was changed to the ban on leaving the place of residence.

Herman left Belarus and became a political refugee, he was given political asylum in Poland. He began his studies at one of Polish universities.

Nevertheless, the trial of Herman and other participants of the March of Freedom started  on 12 December 2001. On 2 January 2002 Herman Sushkevich was found guilty of charges and sentenced  to a fine of 50 minimum wages.