New restrictions of political prisoners' rights

According to Volha Bandarenka, the wife of European Belarus civil campaign coordinator Zmitser Bandarenka, who was an election agent for presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau at the 2010 election, her husband has faced stronger information isolation. Earlier, she received letters on political and philosophical themes from him that were published by websites and newspapers, but now only letters about his daily routine are delivered. She talked about this at a round table discussion “Political prisoners are our pain” organized by “For Freedom!” coordination group, BelSat reports.

“As far as I know, the same is happening to Andrei Sannikau,” Volha said. “His lawyer was banned from spreading any information, I cannot talk about phone calls from the prison. It is done to prevent information leak and not to give a news topic for the media.”

Volha said she had received a letter from Zmitser, who wrote he had back pain and gout aggravation. “He wrote there was a big check in the colony. They had to stand in fresh air. It was very hard. Zmitser felt bad and went to the medical unit. A doctor measured his body temperature and gave him antibiotics. Zmitser said he felt bad and asked to stay in the medical unit, but the doctor said him to go away.

Zmitser called later and said he had been taken to the medical unit. 'He was apparently dying and they took him to the medical unit,” Volha thinks. “I'd like to say that he is not the only prisoner who meets such treatment. We made a fuss and he underwent a surgery. But how many inmates die before they receive medical aid.”