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Bandarenka applies for pardon

Dzmitry Bandarenka has applied to Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a pardon, the wife of the imprisoned opposition politician, Volha, told BelaPAN. According to her, her husband told her over the phone on Saturday that he wrote the pardon application on February 1.

During the previous telephone conversation, which took place on January 29, the 48-year-old Bandarenka informed his wife that despite his spinal disability, the administration of Correctional Institution No. 15 in Mahilyow had prohibited him from using a crutch, wearing special footwear and lying in bed in the daytime, and ordered him to wear heavy prison boots, do light work and join fellow inmates as they line up outdoors for morning and evening checks.

He said that he had trouble walking, could not turn sharply and lift weights, and had intense pain even while sitting.

According to Volha, he asked what she would think if he applied for a pardon.

In April 2011, a district judge in Minsk sentenced Mr. Bandarenka, a campaign aide to candidate Andrey Sannikaw in the 2010 presidential race, to two years in a low-security correctional institution, finding him guilty of organizing disturbances and participating in them in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010.

Mr. Bandarenka underwent back surgery in the National Prison Hospital in Minsk in July 2011 and was transferred back to the Mahilyow prison in late August.

Before the surgery Mr. Bandarenka's right leg was partially paralyzed and he was said to be in constant pain because of four herniated intervertebral discs and three trapped spinal nerves.

In September, when Mr. Bandarenka became eligible for early release on parole as a person who had served more than one-third of his term, he was denied release allegedly because some of the necessary papers had not been submitted.

In late December, the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Mr. Bandarenka's appeal against his prison sentence. The Court's reply was dated December 23, the day when Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at a news conference, "Speaking of Dzmitry Bandarenka, frankly, I am not familiar with the matter well: I don’t know whether he was a campaign aide or not. But Bandarenka and those whom you have mentioned are all equal before the law. You and they are all equal. I would like to draw your particular attention to the fact. Secondly, I want to tell you absolutely straightly that I will pardon or may pardon only a person who has applied to me for a pardon. If they don’t do this, let them remain imprisoned.”

In early January, Mr. Bandarenka was once again denied parole. The parole commission explained that the inmate had failed to admit his guilt, which was the necessary condition for release on parole.