RABOCHY EX EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MET MISNK JOURNALISTS ON COMPLETING HIS PRISON TERM

19.12.2003.

November 18 Viktar Ivashkevich, whose sentence in Baranavichy open-type prison ended on December 16, met Minsk journalists.
He says, he is not going to return to journalism in the near future. Mr. Ivashkevich plans to leave the post of deputy head of Belarusian Popular Front. He intends to continue his party work on the post of Secretary of the Board.
Viktar Ivashkevich thanked his colleagues, who supported him during the year of his imprisonment. “BAJ support was very concrete and effective. Besides that, all the time I was visited by diplomats and journalists from different countries. The open-type prison administration was awfully afraid of that, and treated me in an extremely delicate way’’ – said Viktar Ivashkevich.

He says, he was within the precincts of "open-type corrective institution" only from 7 p.m. to 6.30 a.m., as it was required by the administration. The rest of the time he spent either in the office of Intex-Press independent newspaper, where he worked as a courier, or the office of Baranavichy BPF branch. According to Ivashkevich, many Baranavichy residents knew who he was and why he was there. Every week he was visited by some well-known people, and the Intex-Press often covered his visits on its pages. The newspaper enjoys great popularity among local residents. "Generally, in the field of the level of civic society development, I consider Baranavichy the most progressive city in Belarus", -- summed up Ivashkevich.