EU demands to stop mistreatment of political prisoners

The Embassy of Poland, the country holding the EU presidency, issued a statement on Zmitser Bandarenka’s health on July 25.

“European Union member states have learned of the precarious medical condition and mistreatment of Mr. Zmitzer Bandarenka in custody,” the statement of the European Union Local Representation says.

“We understand the claim of Mr. Bandarenka's family that an inadequate rehabilitation process following a surgical intervention may leave Mr. Bandarenka permanently incapacitated,” the Embassy notes. “The EU Local Representation fully shares the concern of Mr. Bandarenka’s family and associates and calls on Belarus' authorities to ensure proper treatment, counsel, and rehabilitation of Mr. Bandarenka.”

“The EU Local Representation continues to urge Belarus' authorities to release all political prisoners promptly and unconditionally,” the statement stresses.

Bandarenka, the coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign and agent of 2010 presidential president Andrei Sannikov, was sentenced in April to two years in prison for “organizing the actions that breach public order and taking active part in these actions”.

His chronic diseases worsened after detention in December 2010 and placing him in the KGB jail. A neurologist examined him in May and said Bandarenka needed an urgent operation – he has four herniated spinal discs and spinal nerve entrapment. The state of health of the political prisoner deteriorated in June, he was taken to the medical unit and then to the republican prison hospital. Bandarenka was given a choice: either he goes to a penal colony or undergoes an operation. He had to give his written consent to the operation. He was denied a consultation of a neurosurgeon. Zmitser’s family and friends say it is in fact an involuntary operation.

At 10 am on June 25, Bandarenka was taken to hospital No 5 in Minsk to be operated the next day. “I went to the admission room, his friends were standing at the entrance,” his wife Volha Bandarenka said. “A man in plain clothes came in and said we must go away if we do not want troubles. I was inside the building when I was told that a car with my husband drove away.” As the politician’s wife said, a doctor almost completed filling in hospital admission forms when Bandarenka was taken away. The papers were put in the drawer.

It became known in the evening that Zmitser Bandarenka was in the detention facility of the Interior Ministry. The political prisoner was taken to the neurosurgical department of the Minsk 5th hospital late at night.