Zmitser Bandarenka’s last statement: History is made by us!

The prosecutor demands to sentence the coordinator of “European Belarus” Zmitser Bandarenka to 3 years’ imprisonment.

For his participation in the protest rally against rigged results of the presidential election in Belarus on December 19, 2010 Zmitser Bandarenka, an electioneering agent of the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, is charged with organizing group actions gravely violating public order.

Bandarenka has admitted guilt partially, and urged the judge to pass a sentence according to the law and conscience.

A member of the campaign headquarters of Andrei Sannikov, Zmitser Bandarenka has admitted that he marched into the traffic area of Independence Avenue together with other protesters, and the traffic current was shut off because of that. Bandarenka has agreed to the claim of Minsktrans and has compensated the material loss of 159,000 Br which the business entity had brought against the oppositionist.

However, Zmitser Bandarenka does not consider the events on October Square on December 19 to be a blatant violation of public order. In his final statement the accused said that participants of the meeting, as well as him, exercised their constitutional right to rally peacefully, and they protested against the rigged election results. The time will come when many would be asked, why they had not been protesting, he said.

As said by Zmitser Bandarenka, real material losses, billions of dollars, have been inflicted to the country by those who had imprisoned the presidential candidates and thwarted the democratic way of overcoming the political and economic crisis in the country. In the end of his speech, Zmitser Bandarenka addressed Judge Tatsyana Ravinskaya:

“Our slogan was: the history is made today, it is made by us. The first part of the slogan had been created by me, the second one by Andrei Sannikov. And indeed, the history is made today. High Court! Our family and large numbers of citizens of Belarus are looking at you with hope, many people who are interested in the situation in Belarus are looking at you with hope. As they say, one flap of a butterfly’s wings could create a completely new world. The Belarusian court has power higher than a butterfly flapping its wings. My future is in your hands, but it could be more than my future. But I am ready to accept any verdict from you.”

The sentence to the politician is to be pronounced today at 10.30 a.m. in the court of Pershamajski district of Minsk.