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Zmitser Dashkevich in his prison cell alone

Zmitser Dashkevich is being held alone in his cell in Prison No. 1 in Hrodna, Anastasiya (Nasta) Palazhanka, who is engaged to the chairperson of an opposition youth group called Malady Front, told BelaPAN on Friday.

"According to the lawyer, who met with Zmitser yesterday, he doesn't complain about anything," said Ms. Palazhanka, who is deputy chairperson of Malady Front. "There's no radio set in his cell, but he is allowed to get one. Zmitser may receive only one parcel a year, weighing no more than two kilograms. That is why he is forced to eat prison food. He may also buy something at the prison store, but his spending is limited to 100,000 rubels [$12] a month."

Zmitser Dashkevich, currently 31 years of age, was arrested in Minsk on December 18, 2010, on the eve of a scheduled large-scale post-election demonstration, for allegedly beating up two passers-by. Speaking during his trial, Mr. Dashkevich said that the incident was a provocation orchestrated by authorities and accused the two alleged victims of giving false testimony.

On March 24, 2011, he was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security correctional institution on a charge of "especially malicious hooliganism."

In September 2011, he refused an offer of freedom in exchange for asking Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a presidential pardon.

In a closed-door trial held in a prison in the Vitsyebsk region at the end of August 2012, Mr. Dashkevich was found guilty of persistent violation of prison rules under Part One of the Criminal Code's Article 411 and sentenced to a one-year prison term. The remaining four months of the previously imposed prison term were included in the new term.

On September 19, Mr. Dashkevich was moved to Correctional Institution No. 20 in Mazyr.

On October 31, he stood a new trial on a charge of persistent violation of prison rules. The judge found him guilty and ruled that he serve the rest of his term in a cell-type prison. Mr. Dashkevich was transferred to the Hrodna prison a week later.

Earlier this year, businessman Mikalay Awtukhovich, another government opponent who is widely viewed as a political prisoner, was moved to that prison for alleged disciplinary offenses.