Dashkevich told how he ended up with low status behind bars and wrote a petition for pardon
«I took this step for my children, to return to them.»
The hero of the new episode of the YouTube channel «ЧастнОК-LIVE» was former political prisoner Zmitser Dashkevich.
On July 14, 2022, for participating in protests, Zmitser Dashkevich and his wife Nasta were sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment and three years of «house arrest» respectively. In July 2023, on the day Dashkevich was released from the penal colony, he was detained under a new criminal case. In October of the same year, the court sentenced him to another year in a strict regime penal colony under the article on malicious disobedience to the administration's demands. In 2024, Dashkevich was again convicted — to one year and three months in a strict regime penal colony.
On September 11, 2025, he was released (20 days before the end of his term) and effectively deported to Lithuania along with fifty other Belarusian political prisoners.
As Zmitser told, in the Navasady penal colony, he agreed to comply with the administration's order, the execution of which meant a voluntary transition to a so-called «low status.»
«I fought against this for a long time when they tried to process me… for a second term (here Zmitser probably refers to the criminal prosecution of 2010—2013. — NN),» Dashkevich states and explains his motivation:
«I reasoned this way: if I allow them to do this to me now, if I go, agree to this game, then all the people they will judge after me, they will put through this system. And I believe I won this battle against them; back then, it cost me one year of extra life and, perhaps, a year in solitary confinement.»
However, later the situation changed. When Zmitser was again convicted in 2023, he had four children.
And when he was told in the Navasady colony: «Go clean the bathroom, because otherwise you won't return to your family,» he agreed.
«Up until now, I needed a lot of courage to fight them and not give in, I needed a lot of physical and moral strength to battle them and not surrender; now, I needed a lot of strength to accept a low status for myself and go clean the bathroom,» Zmitser shares.
It was the desire to get out sooner and reunite with his family that became decisive.
«I was in the PKT (Punishment Isolation Ward) and received a letter from my little girl, my daughter Magdalena. She wrote to me: 'Dad, will you come back to us soon?' And I answered her: 'My dearest, I will come back to you very soon.' I had only a few months left to serve. And then they took me out of the PKT to the squad, saying: 'Here's a mop, here's the bathroom.' And I went to clean the bathroom for my children.»
According to Dashkevich, when he found himself in a low status — «which is the most terrible thing for any prisoner» — he felt like «the happiest man on Earth.»
«Because I took this step for my children, to return to them,» Dashkevich emphasizes and mentions that his consent to carry out the order came as a surprise to the colony administration.
«They ran off… They came back an hour later: 'Let's record it on video.' That is, they went and informed the management that Dashkevich had done it. The management didn't believe I had done it. They said: 'Well, let's record it here quietly one more time.' So I wiped the floor by the sinks there — for the video.»
Dashkevich asserts that when the administration realized they couldn't «legally pursue» him under Article 411 (malicious disobedience to administrative demands), because he was complying with the demands, new materials were fabricated against him.
According to Dashkevich, he understood that he might be deceived, that his consent to transition to a low status might not influence anything.
«But I knew that if they continued to pursue me, I wouldn't be guilty before my little girl, to whom I swore I would return soon,» Zmitser says.
Ultimately, that's what happened. Just before his release, he was detained again. He calls those days «terrible days of despair» and admits that he «prayed, shouted to God: 'Why didn't they just jail me for 5—10 years right away?'»
«It would be equally unpleasant for me if heterosexual parades were held in the city»
When asked if his attitude towards people of non-traditional sexual orientation had changed after the experience of humiliation, Dashkevich replied that he considers «homosexual fornication and heterosexual fornication» to be the same sin from a biblical perspective and emphasized that he strives to be objective.
At the same time, he noted that he always had a good attitude towards people who «do not make their private sexual life a public life» and do not impose their vision of norms on others.
«It would be equally unpleasant for me if heterosexual parades were held in the city while I'm walking down the street. It would be equally impossible for me to explain to my children what's happening. And the issue here is not about gays, although many people want to reduce it to this topic.
I tried — and I believe I still do — to have a good attitude towards people who do not aggressively teach me that sin is a norm that should be cultivated. But this right of choice was given to man by God. Not by Dashkevich, not by some individual,» Dashkevich explains.
«Pardon me, let me serve out my term»
Separately in the interview, the former political prisoner spoke about how he was forced to write a petition for pardon. According to Dashkevich, the initiative came from colony staff and was accompanied by blackmail involving his family:
«An operative in Kaliadzichy calls me and says: 'Listen, your wife is on «chemistry» (house arrest). The children are there too.' I say: 'Yes.' 'Well, you understand that your wife can be jailed, and the children taken to an orphanage. You need to write it.'»
As Zmitser recalls, he returned to his cell in a state of shock. But then he caught himself thinking:
«What does this utterly worthless piece of paper mean? I will, of course, write it for the sake of my family.»
Dashkevich wrote his first statement as concisely as possible — just four words in Belarusian: «I ask you to pardon me.»
Later he prepared a second, more detailed version:
«Like this and that, they said, pardon me, let me serve out my term; the operatives here are constantly 'harassing' me. But they say they are not 'harassing' me themselves, but that you are asking them to. Aliaksandr Ryhoravich, pardon me, let me serve out my term in peace.»
However, according to Dashkevich, none of these options satisfied the administration. When the operative reviewed the texts, he declared: «Well, you understand that none of this will do?»
To the question «what will do?», he was offered to testify against Viktar Babaryka, «Radio Svaboda», Pavel Seviarynets, the church, Pandadoc, and the IT park.
«I just come back to the cell in a trance. The only joy I had was tearing up those pardon requests and flushing them down the toilet. They are blackmailing me with my family, my wife. Otherwise, I would have just told them to go to hell. He says: 'Well, let's write something, at least something there,'» Dashkevich recounts.
As a result, he wrote another text — but without accusing specific individuals:
«Yes, I met with journalists from «Radio Svaboda». But back then, Aliaksandr Ryhoravich also did this, sitting at the same table with them. Maybe ask him about it? 'What is an IT park,' I write, 'I only learned from the media in 2020.' Babaryka, thank God, I've never seen with my own eyes. And I write to them: 'Of course, you can do whatever you want with me, but you will only do what God has allowed you to do. And I will go through all of this for the sake of my family.'»
Dashkevich doesn't know for sure how the story with this statement ended. «Well, probably nothing. That's it, they pursued me for the third time (started another criminal case. — NN),» the former political prisoner notes.
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