Dzmitry Drozd: My certificate of release has stamp: “To be subject to oversight”
- 15.08.2011, 15:57
Dzmitry Drozd had to gone through hell, but he has no regrets.
The telephone of the mother of the scientist, archivist, who had been released just two days ago, rings its head off. The mobile phone of Dzmitry Drozd himself is still kept by the KGB. But Dzmitry is happy to converse, and he openly and sincerely tells what he had gone through over the last half a year.
On December 19 he was detained on the Square and sentenced to 10 days’ arrest. And later, on February 1, he was arrested and accused under Article 293 of the Criminal Code: mass riots.
“I was sleeping, and suddenly my mother started waking me up. She said: “Dzmitry, they have come for you”. Two persons in black jackets without any recognition badges came in. They did not say who they were, didn’t tell their names. They said that I should be interrogated as a witness. I said goodbye to my mother. I was taken to the Investigation Committee in Sapyorau Street, where I was demonstrated a video from the Square and charges were served on me.
First I was in the prison in Akrestsin Street, then in Valadarski Street. I was in cell £18, there were 21 person per 21 square metres. We were sleeping in three shifts, there was commotion day and night, bright light was on all the time, there was no air, and a walk one hour only,” Dzmitry said.
“During the investigation I denied that it was me on the video, no matter what pressure was exerted on me. As a result, I saw investigator three times only. There was no investigation in fact as far as I am concerned. They realized that I would not talk to them, and they lost interest. As for the court, everything happened the way I expected. Witnesses’ confused testimony. There was not a single policeman who detained me on the square. Video footage was not examined in the court, one of the “complainants” said that he had no complaints against me. Everything was predictable. I was told: if you admit guilt, you would be sentenced to 3 years, if not – to 3.5 years. I has not admitted guilt,” the political prisoner said to charter97.org website.
The process of Drozd’s release from the penal colony in Babrujsk looked the following way:
“They persuaded me for about two hours, on Saturday some major and a person in plainclothes arrived. At that moment I was in the industrial zone. I was asked a lot about my views. First I did not understand, what they were talking about. And then I understood. We were talking about politics, I was speaking about devaluation, and they about other things. It was a conversation between “Narodnaya Volya” and “Sovetskaya Belorussia”. Then they started to speak about my mother, saying that she is seriously ill, she is distressed for me. Her brother died in June, and mother grieved. They knew what they should push on. Then they asked whether I want to return to my work. I said certainly I want. And I should buy a lottery ticket for that, they said. They started to dictate a petition for pardon, but when they said the expression: “I admit guilt”, I refused to write. Then we agreed on the phrase “I do not admit guilt, but I regret what had been done personally by me.” They had an aim to receive these petitions for pardon at any cost. On August 5 my documents were sent to Minsk, and on August 11 I learnt I was pardoned. But anyway, I am a person with criminal record. I am to be registered. As it is written on my certificate of release: “Be subject to oversight”.
Despite all trials Dzmitry Drozd has come through, he does not regret his participation in the election campaign of Andrei Sannikov.
“When Aleh Byabenin (Oleg Bebenin) died, I realized that I must do something, and I joined the initiative group of Andrei Sannikov. There I met wonderful people, who supported me and supported my mother. I knew that my mother is as safe as houses with them. Even my friends and classmates did not support my family the way Sannikov’s team did,” the political prisoner said.