Case of Dashkevich to be sent to court February 18-19

The case against Young Front leader Zmitser Dashkevich and the leader of Minsk branch Young Front, Eduard Lobau, is likely to be sent to court on February 18-19.

Zmitser Dashkevich and Eduard Lobau, both charged with hooliganism, are in jail in Zhodzina now. Lobau writes the conditions in the jail are not worse, and perhaps even better than in the army. Two weeks ago, after Lobau had refused to give evidence against Young Front members, he was threatened with a transfer to another cell where his cell-mates would “take care” of him. “Two weeks passed, but he writes in letters that everything is quiet,” Tatsyana Shaputska says. However, his family cannot receive his personal things.

Zmitser Dashkevich hopes the case will be sent to court and he will be transferred to Minsk. Zmitser Dashkevich says the conditions in Zhodzina are better than those in a detention facility in Valadarski Street in Minsk. The jail is not so overcrowded. Dashkevich’s cell has 10 beds for 12 people. “As for information, the jail in Zhodzina is much worse. No information leaks from outside. Zmitser doesn’t receive letters, sending books is forbidden, because they have a library there,” Tatsyana Shaputska said.

On January 31, lawyer Pavel Sapelka visited the Zhodzina jail to be present at interrogation of Zmitser Dashkevich. The youth leader was questioned as a witness in the case of mass riot. There are threats that Dashkevich may be given a status of “organizer of mass riot”. The Young Front leader is an accused in the case of hooliganism and a witness in the case of mass riot.