More Political Prisoners
An activist of the civil campaign European Belarus who was involved in the Process of Fourteen, was arrested on February 23. 17-year-old Maxim Dashuk was summoned to the police department of Maskouski district of Minsk. He was accused of violating the house arrest sentence of last April, he received as the result of participating in protest rallies of market vendors.
“Today Maxim was interrogated in connection with violations of the house arrest sentence,” stated his attorney Pavel Sapelka. “Maxim’s mother is an individual entrepreneur, he has no father. In connection with difficult financial situation of the family Dashuk helped his mother in her work. Maxim faces up to 3 years of restriction of freedom without an alternative”
Shortly before his arrest, Maxim Dashuk spoke to the Charter’97 press-centre. “I had a difficult situation in my family. I was simply forced to violate the rules and help my mother. When you are under house arrest, you are allowed to leave the house only from 10 a.m. till noon. When they checked, I wasn’t home. In fact, I was checked every day, even several times a day.”
In the Process of Fourteen, 14 opposition activists who were involved in protest actions of entrepreneurs on January 10, 2008, had criminal charges initiated against them. Youth activist Andrei Kim was sentenced to one and a half years in a penal colony by the Central district court of Minsk. As a result of EU and US pressure, he was released in August 2008. Other participants of the “Process of Fourteen” – Alyaksei Bondar, Artsyom Dubski, Mikhal Kryvau, Mikhal Pashkevich, Ales Straltsou, Ales Charnyshou, Tatsyana Tsishkevich, Mikhail Subach and Paval Vinahradau, were sentenced to restriction of freedom for 2 years without sending them to penitentiary institutions. Minor Maxim Dashuk got 1 ½ years of restraint of liberty. Now all of them in fact are under house arrest, under close surveillance, and can be imprisoned for any violation of rules at any moment.
There are five new political prisoners in Belarus jails today. The leaders of private entrepreneurs Mikalay Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau and Uladzimir Asipenka, as well as another participant of the Process of Fourteen, Artsyom Dubski, were arrested in February. The Young Front activist faces up to 3 years of imprisonment for
violating his house arrest sentence. He was arrested when he returned to Belarus from a visit to Ukraine. Yury Lyavonau and Mikalay Autukhovich are former political prisoners who two years ago were sentenced to imprisonment for defending the rights of entrepreneurs. The crackdown in Belarus became particularly severe during the visits to the country of EU officials and members of the European Parliament, as if to demonstrate the regime’s arrogance.
Source: Charter97 Press Center, February 23, 2009
This article appeared in
Belarusian Review, Vol. 21, No. 1
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