Rights defender Andrei Bandarenka released after 3 years of imprisonment
Rights defender Andrei Bandarenka was released on March 31, Radio Liberty reports. He spent 3 years in jail for malicious hooliganism directed against three citizens. He was imprisoned for 4 years but the term was reduced after an amnesty. Bandarenka pled partially guilty and said that it had been a provocation. He used to be the chairperson of such human rights projects as Platform and Platform Innovation.
A new case was started against Bandarenka at the end of his term of imprisonment, Euroradio reported. The prosecutor asked to imprison him in a top security colony for 1 year for repeated disobedience to the prison administration. Nevertheless, Mahilypou Lenin District Court pronounced a verdict of not guilty on March 30. It was unexpected, the rights defender confessed.
He was released thanks to 'political and public pressure' Andrei Bandarenka announced at large. “Lukashenka had to please the West because the economic situation in the country is bad,” Bandarenka thinks. He has gone to his father’s house in Kirau District, Mahilyou Province.
Photo: svaboda.org
