Professor Bandazhevsky’s Defense Appeals to UN Commission for Human Rights :: Charter'97 :: News

The UN Commission for human rights received a complaint over the verdict against former rector of the Gomel medical institute Yuri Bandazhevsky, Radio Svaboda was told by the professor’s defender, prominent Belarusian attorney Garry Pogonailo.

“We used all national mechanisms of protecting his rights. Regretfully, they didn’t produce any positive result and now we are using international mechanisms. I hope that Bandazhevsky’s case will be submitted for consideration in Geneva and that a positive decision will enable us to reconsider the sentence in Belarus. It is under the Belarusian law, that we are hoping for an acquittal, as far as there’s no proof of the professor’s guilt,” – said Pogonailo.

Famous for his research into the health condition of victims of the Chernobyl radiation fall-out, Yuri Bandazhevsky was sentenced last year to 8 years of jail for alleged bribery. The human rights defenders deem that his persecution by the state is politically motivated. Bandazhevsky pleaded with Alexander Lukashenko to pardon him, explaining that he needs to resume his scientific works, for which he hasn’t got proper conditions in prison. This address, however, changed nothing in the scholar’s destiny.