Ill-treatment of political prisoners goes on

• 17.02.2012, 15:00

A forcible attempt was made to throw Zmitser Dashkevich into a cell with a so-called downcast prisoner.

Young Front leader Zmitser Dashkevich met with a lawyer in the penal colony in Hlubokaye today, political prisoner's fiancee Anastasia Palazhanka says. According to her, the meeting was nervous: prison staff did not allow Dashekvich to talk and threatened to terminate the meeting, Euroradio reports.

The political prisoner managed to say prison guards tried to throw him into a cell with a prisoner with a low social status, a so-called downcast. Under unofficial prison rules, a prisoner is considered a downcast if he stays in a cell with another downcast. Dashkevich refused from transferring to this cell and was thrown into a punishment cell.

Dashkevich thinks it was a provocation in order to open a criminal case against him for resistance to prison guards and prolong his term of imprisonment.

The political prisoner has to serve 10 months before the release.