On February 1, the political prisoner who was denied in earlier conditional release, despite the difficult state of health, wrote an appeal for pardon. Dmitry Bandarenka told his wife during a phone call from prison on February 4.
We remind, that from January 30, in Mogilev colony new rules for Dmitry Bandarenka came into effect. Prison authorities had given him some medical treatment, and afterwards decided to tighten prison conditions for the political prisoner, who underwent a complex neurosurgical operation on a spine. He was banned to use crutches and orthopedic shoes, which were passed by his wife, he wasn't allowed to lie during a day, he had to walk in ranks; he was prescribed "light" jobs, which can be interpreted very broadly.
For Bandarenka, who could hardly walk with a crutch and who is difficult even to sit, the new conditions were simply killing. On the second day after writing the appeal, on February 2, he was returned the crutches, orthopedic shoes, and the allowed not to walk in ranks with the sick spine.
"Actually I'm very happy, because every morning I imagined how Dima stands in a cold, how he was trying to catch up with a rank without a stick, in these terrible shoes behind healthy men. In my eyes, he fell twice at home, and I imagined how he was falling in ranks or from steps on a street ... Because he told me, how he nearly fell a few times. Dima's health worsened, and he thinks probably he will have to go through one more surgery ... Now I'm a little relieved. Although I don't know whether will be the main sense of this. Will I see in the near future my husband at large, because by the law he must be already at large on the grant of parole", wife of political prisoner, Olga Bandarenka, told in an interview to charter97.org.
"I am absolutely sure, this was done under pressure. If earlier, the authorities could get some political advantage of these appeals, then now I don't see any sense for those who remain behind bars to renounce it. Now it seems, it's already clear to everyone, this court not only has no legal force, but doesn't give moral benefits for the regime. These appeals people write under a torture or in very close conditions to tortures", coordinator of "European Belarus", spokesman of Andrei Sannikov, Alexander Atroshchankau, commented in an interview to Radio Liberty on the fact that Dmitry Bandarenka wrote an appeal for pardon.
As UDF.BY reported earlier, Dmitry Bandarenka was sentenced to two years imprisonment in a penal colony. Immediately after his arrest in December 2010, the politician's chronic diseases had exacerbated, and in July he underwent spinal surgery in the 5th clinical hospital of Minsk.
We remind, on January 24, it became known that Andrei Sannikov, signed an appeal for pardon. According to his wife Irina Khalip, he was compelled to do so under torture. Referring to Sannikov, Khalip reported that a petition has been signed on 20 November. However, the Interior Ministry claimed that it happened on December 23, and on January 23 document was allegedly delivered in the presidential administration.
