Andrei Bandarenka is refused amnesty due to dusty prison cell

Ex-head of the human rights organization Platform Innovation Andrei Bandarenka has not been amnestied this year. He is considered to be a repeated troublemaker in prison, Radio Liberty reports.

The prisoner tried to appeal the violations he had been accused of but he failed. Bandarenka told the news to his father by phone on July 29.

All the violations had been discovered right before the law on amnesty was adopted, Bandarenka said. The guards found dust in his cell twice and he was punished for it. He was punished for the third time when his whole group was late from church. However, only Andrei Banadrenka was punished for it, his father said.

The human rights defender was imprisoned for 3 years for major hooliganism last year. Bandarenka pled partially guilty in court and said that the charges had probably been ‘prepared by the special services’. Viasna and Belarusian Helsinki Committee human rights defenders do not consider Bandarenka a political prisoner.

Photo: svaboda.org