A Mahiliou court has found the imprisoned human rights defender Andrey Bandarenka not guilty of violating prison rules.
He will be released tomorrow. If convicted, Bandarenka could have faced another year in prison, as requested by the prosecutor earlier today.
“Not guilty. Acquitted,” judge of Leninsky district court Syarhei Mazur said.
“I did not expect such a verdict to be delivered. It has become possible due to public response,” Bandarenka told svaboda.org.
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Andrey Bandarenka was charged under Part 2, Art. 411 of the Criminal Code (‘willful disobedience to the correctional institution administration’), after the prison authorities imposed on him a dozen penalties for alleged breach of internal regulations.
In particular, the prisoner was accused of lying on his bed in the daytime, which is prohibited by the prison rules. In a separate episode, he was penalized for talking during a walk in the prison yard.
Andrey Bandarenka is a former head of NGO Platform Innovation which is engaged in defending prisoners’ rights and monitoring correction facilities in Belarus. Human rights activists believe that the new trial of Bandarenka was another attempt of the authorities to take vengeance on him.
In 2014, Andrey Bandarenka was found guilty of hooliganism and malicious hooliganism and sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment in a medium-security penal colony.
belsat.eu, following spring96.org
