Zmitser Bandarenka’s verdict upheld

The court refused to take into account that the political prisoner has serious problems with health.

The Minsk City Court dismissed a cassation appeal against a verdict to coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka. The politician was sentenced to 2 years in a minimum security penal colony for participation in a protest rally against the flawed presidential elections.

Due to serious problems with his spinal column (herniated intervertebral disks, spinal nerve entrapments, leg paresis) coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka was transferred from the remand prison of the Interior Affairs Ministry to the Republican Prison Hospital, which is situated in the same place, in Valadarski Street in Minsk.

The prison administration has recently said Bandarenka must either go to prison or undergo a surgery. He was denied a consultation of a neurosurgeon.

Member of the European Parliament Marek Migalski, who took over godparenthood for the political prisoner, sent his second letter to the chief of Interior’s Ministry detention facility.

Marek MIgalski says in the letter: “Zmitser Bandarenka has faced a difficult choice. The state of health of Zmitser Bandarenka is very serious; an unsuccessful operation can lead to disability.”

Migalski called on the chief of Interior’s Ministry detention facility to organize an urgent consultation with neurosurgeons. He also noted that this treatment of prisoners is a vivid example of human rights violations and that proper medical care is among fundamental rights guaranteed by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights ratified by the Belarusian authorities.