Maksim Dashuk – an oppositional activist from the village of Krasnoye.

Chronicle of repression

Thousands of people, including civil society activists and businessmen, took to the streets in Minsk on 10 January 2008 to participate in a demonstration against the introduction of a presidential decree concerning restrictive tax and employment regulations for small businesses. The demonstration was organized by entrepreneurs who had applied to the authorities for permission to hold the demonstration. They did not receive a reply to their request and decided to go ahead with the protest. Fourteen individuals were subsequently convicted for “organization and active participation in group actions, seriously violating public order,” among them Maksim Dashuk who was detained during the demonstration, at that time he was 16.

On 27 May 2008 the judge of the Central Court in Minsk, Valery Jesman found Dashuk guilty of the charges and sentenced him to one and a half years of  freedom restriction. Soon after  another criminal case was initiated against Dashuk, this time, under the article 415 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (violation of the conditions of a freedom restriction). On 23 February 2009 Dashuk was placed in custody, and the next day the prosecutor changed the preventive measure to a ban on leaving the place of residence.

In June 2009, judge Kuzniecova  sentenced Maksim Dashuk to one year and three months of further freedom restriction after a militia officer was unable to find him at home. After he finished school he worked in a furniture company in Minsk.