English

Wife concerned about Dzmitry Bandarenka`s health

The health condition of Dzmitry Bandarenka has recently deteriorated, Volha Bandarenka, the wife of the 48-year-old imprisoned opposition politician, told BelaPAN on Thursday with reference to the latest letter from her husband.

“Dzmitry caught cold after a large-scale inspection in the prison during which the inmates had to stand for a long time,” said Ms. Bandarenka. “After developing fever, he went to the medical unit to ask for medicines. He also asked to be admitted there because of his backbone problems. He has to use a cane. He was first told to stop ‘bargaining’ and go away. But finally, they agreed to place him in the medical unit.”

The woman said that a medical commission would examine her husband on March 2 to decide whether he should be declared disabled. “Given the fact that the commission will feature representatives of the KGB, the interior ministry and the defense ministry, I doubt that it will declare him such,” she noted.

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 prison, 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 interverbral discs and three trapped spinal nerves.

In late December, the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Mr. Bandarenka's appeal against his prison sentence.