Aliaksandr Frantskevich: I marked New Year in rather good company

A former political prisoner was released from jail on the first day of 2014.

Judge Viktoria Shabunia sentenced Aliaksandr Frantskevich to 12 days in custody. The jail term expired on January 1, 2014.

“I marked the New Year in a rather good company. I was released at 18:35. A jail officer stood with a mobile phone measuring time to free me at the right second. My friends and journalists met me outside the jail,” he said to charter97.org after the release.

Frantskevich said about the plans to continue the Stop Tax protests, for which he had been detained: “I support protests. But on the other hand, it's sad that people are ready to fight only for financial interests. They forget about the main thing, about the attitude of the regime toward people, about the place of a person in the system.”

Frantskevich met Maksim Viniarski in the jail yard. A coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign continues his hunger strike. Frantskevich says Maksim behaved in a brave way and sends greetings to everyone. Viniarksi is expected to be released on January 3.

Frantskevich received a bill of 512,000 rubles for staying in the detention facility.

Aliaksandr Frantskevich was released from a correctional colony on September 3. He was sentenced to 3 years in the case of anarchists in May 2011. Frantskevich, Ihar Alinevich and Mikalai Dziadok were charged with organising a series of arsons of administrative buildings. The activists were sentenced to from 3 to 7 years in jail, though their guilt wasn't proved and the damage wasn't big.