Volha Bandarenka: Many think he is lucky to be imprisoned for only 2 years

Zmitser Bandarenka has been sentenced to two years in a minimum security colony. Minsk Pershamaiski District Court imprisoned Andrei Sannikau’s representative “for organization and preparation for actions rudely violating the order or active participation in them”. Zmitser’s wife Volha says that she was ready for something worse.

Volha: "Dzima said that he was ready for three years and they sentenced him to only two. It did not make him happier but still. Many think that he is lucky comparing it to the 4-year terms of imprisonment the others have been sentenced to!”

Volha came to court in the same the trouser suit she was wearing when she got married to Zmitser 5 years before. She wanted to demonstrate that she would be waiting for her husband impatiently.

The convict’s wife has noted that Zmitser made some remarks about the conditions in the detention centre. He said that “nobody had cancelled searches and doing the splits naked in the cold”. But they were given pills during the flu epidemic.

Volha is worried about his health condition although Zmitser stood firm in court.