Sentence to Dmitry Dashkevich

Dmitry Dashkevich’s sentencing before he finished serving his prison term expands the authorities’ arsenal against political activists. Now, the release of political prisoners has become exceptionally arbitrary.

On August 28^th, Dmitry Dashkevich, leader of a youth political organization “Young Front”, was sentenced to additional year in prison for “repeated violation of the prison rules”.

On March 24^th, 2011 “Young Front” leader Dmirty Dashkevich was sentenced to two years in prison on malicious hooliganism charges. He was arrested on the eve of the last presidential elections, December 18, 2010.

Sentence to Dashkevich provoked deepening of the split in the democratic community regarding the boycott issue. Boycott supporters called upon democratic activists, who were registered as candidates, to join the boycott campaign.

High emotional tension around the boycott and political prisoners leaves the question of how the boycott could help releasing the political prisoners, open. The opposition is securely isolated from society, and the boycott campaign only adds to this isolation. Therefore the authorities have no reason to listen to the oppositions’ demands and only power pressure (or from external forces, or society), could motivate them to release political prisoners.