Zmitser Bandarenka applies for pardon

The political prisoner, who was denied parole in spite of serious problems with health, applied for a pardon on 1 February. Zmitser Bandarenka said this to his wife on the phone on 4 February.

Bear in mind that new rules were introduced for Zmitser Bandarenka in a penal colony in Mahiliou on 30 January. After a slight recovery in his health, the colony administration made a decision to toughen confinement conditions for the political prisoner, who had earlier undergone a difficult spinal surgery operation. He was forbidden to use a crutch and orthopedic shoes he received from his wife. He was forbidden to lie down during the day. Instead, he must go to daily formations and perform “light work”, the term that can be interpreted in lots of ways.

The new conditions were killing for Bandarenka, who can hardly walk with the crutch and sit down. On 2 February he was returned his crutch and orthopedic shoes and was allowed not to go to formations.

“Actually, I am happy, because I imagined every morning how Zmitser is standing in frost, how he was trying to be on time for the formation without his crutch, in his awful shoes. I saw how he fell down two times at home and I imagined how he could fall down in formation or from steps in the street… He told me he had almost fallen down several times. His health deteriorated. He thinks he will need another surgery… It is good news. I don’t know if it has sense, if my husband will be released, but under the law, he should have been released on parole already,” Volha Bandarenka, the wife of the political prisoner, said in an interview.