Dmitrii Bondarenko has been transferred to the prison unit with a bad back

On 11 November, the political prisoner was returned from the medical unit to the prison unit of Mogilyov colony No. 15.

On 20 November, Dmitrii Bondarenko was allowed to call his wife. During a short conversation, the political prisoner managed to report that despite his back pain he had been returned to the prison unit.

“Dima called yesterday, exactly 11 months from the date of his arrest. Instead of the 15 minutes which are customary in such circumstances, after a few minutes of conversation the guards started screaming that he should stop talking,” Olga Bondarenko, the wife of the politician, told charter97.org.

“On 11 November he was transferred to the prison unit, without waiting for the promised two weeks in the medical unit. He has an autumnal exacerbation of back pain. Earlier in the prison unit, he had breaks and was allowed to do special exercises lying down. Now this no longer happens; he has to stand up for one and a half hours during checks, like everyone else,” the wife of Dmitrii reports.

“Last week there was a special committee meeting of four officers. They decided that he was not on the road to reform,” said Olga Bondarenko. Let us remind you that the question of commutation of the sentence, in connection with the expiry of one third of the period of imprisonment, was considered by the commission on parole and change of punishment regime in September, but mitigation of the punishment regime was refused.

According to the wife of the politician, only letters from herself and his father reach him; Dmitrii himself writes her letters every day, but only one in five reaches her.

“He said that now the situation is reminiscent of the early months of his arrest,” reports the wife of Dmitrii Bondarenko. “He asked us to insist on an independent medical examination.”

“A long meeting is scheduled for 21-23 December; it will then be a year since Dmitrii was put in jail,” says Olga.