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Wife comments on Dzmitry Bandarenka’s pardon application

Volha Bandarenka, the wife of imprisoned opposition politician Dzmitry Bandarenka, said in an interview with BelaPAN that she could not say whether she had expected her husband to apply to Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a pardon.

“It was fifty-fifty as to whether I expected that or not,” she said. “I expected both the worth thing and this outcome, which is better for me. We discussed this and Dzima [Dzmitry] said he had two options: to go to the bitter end or to write a pardon application, depending on developments. Developments were apparently such that he had to write it. And this is the best outcome for me considering the circumstances.”

Mrs. Bandarenka noted that her husband’s move was good for her at least because he was given back his walking stick and allowed to wear soft shoes immediately after he wrote the application.

According to her, the news that Andrey Sannikaw had applied for a presidential pardon might have influenced her husband’s decision, but it was not a determining factor.

“I never asked him to write a pardon application,” she said. “Although I’m his wife, I am not well aware of the situation. I don’t know what is going on there. That’s why I always knew that Dzima would make the most reasonable decision.”

When asked whether she considered the pardon application dangerous to her husband’s political career, Mrs. Bandarenka said: “I don’t think Sannikaw or Bandarenka sought to make a political career. I don’t think they are politicians. Dzima viewed himself as a manager and an advertising expert. He was in opposition to the government, but he was not a politician and was never going to make a political career. He just wanted the nation to live a better life.”//BelaPAN