People address Lukashenka asking to mitigate penalty to Zmitser Bandarenka

Public activists held an action “Save Zmitser Bandarenka” in Minsk on 2 August. They lodged personal petitions to the chancellery of the Presidential Administration asking to mitigate the punishment to politician Zmitser Bandarenka.

All petitions addressed to Lukashenka have the same text: “Our republic is a part of Europe territorially, historically and culturally. As a nation, we want to meet its standards, including the standards of humanity. Basing on this facts and acting from my humanitarian motives, I ask you to soften punishment for Zmitser Bandarenka (convicted for not a grave crime) due to significant deterioration of his health making him suffer from permanent intolerable pain and threatening with paralysis in prison.”

First participants of the action began to file their petitions at noon. At least 15 petitions had been filed by 2 pm, BelaPAN reports. Similar petitions are expected to be sent to Lukashenka from Germany and Israel.

Zmitser Bandarenka, the coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign and an election agent of 2010 presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, was sentenced to two years in a minimum security penal colony in the criminal case of mass disorders on 19 December. He underwent a spine surgery on 26 July. The politician was denied a consultation with a neurosurgeon. Bandarenka's family and friends fear he may become a disabled person if sent to a penal colony after this difficult operation.