The investigation press upon relatives of political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich

After official charges were brought against the businessmen from Vaukavysk, the authorities began to press upon their relatives.

As Alena, wife of the arrested entrepreneurs Mikalai Autukhovich told the Charter’97 press center, she felt pressure after she had announced her intention to defend her husband in court:

“I made a motion to investigator from Hrodna Kukharchyk, saying I will defend my husband in court. I wrote there that deceitful information about my husband was being spread in press, and I was going to defend him in the process.”

According to Alena Autukhovich, Vaukavysk district newspaper “Nash Chas” published an article, which reported, in particular, that fire weapon and explosive substances had been found in Autukhovich’s department during the search. And a column “Rumours” near the article wrote that Mikalai Autukhovich allegedly took part in terroristic attacks.

“I was shocked with this lies,” Alena Autukhovich says. “I have a copy of a search record of our apartment. Fire weapon and explosive substances are not mentioned there. Things seized: notebooks, cassettes, sim-cards, photos. What explosives did they see?”

As the businessman’s wife tells, on the day when she made motion, she received a telephone call from the Vaukavysk militia department and was invited to come and “talk”. Alena Autukhovich said she wouldn’t come without an official summons.

On February 19, Alena Autukhovich received a summons from the Vaukavysk militia department, ordering to appear “for investigation”. The summons was signed by M. Myagkhou, senior investigator of the militia department of the Hrodna city executive committee.

The wife of the arrested came to the militia department.

“The investigator has already prepared three pages of text and tried to hand it to me,” Alena Autukhovich tells after her visit to the militia department. “I was pressed. I was sitting their, shivering. The investigator gave me papers with words “Write down here! Sign here!” They wanted to question me. I couldn’t imagine it is possible in our country.”

According to Alena Autukhovich, they wanted her to give evidence against her husband.

“They wrote,” the woman tells, ”that my husband was seized live hunting cartridges during the search. But cartridges can be either hunting or live ones.”

Alena Autukhovich says rounds for hunt were really confiscated during the search on February 8, 2009. But the woman says her husband has a hunting certificate. When Mikalai Autukhovich was arrested for the first time in 2005 on falsified charges with tax evasion, two hunting guns were confiscated. But the cartridges remained from those times.

“My husband has a permit for keeping cartridges – a hunting permit,” Alena Autukhovich says. “I didn’t sign anything. Any evidence against my husband would cancel my motion to defend him in court. They wanted to catch me, but failed.”

It should be reminded that on February 8, leaders of entrepreneurs Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau, and Uladzimir Asipenka.

On February 18, they were accused of arson of a house of former head of the Vaukavysk militia department. It is remarkable that the arson took place in 2005, and the guilty persons are serving punishment. The arrested businessmen face up to 12 years of imprisonment.

It should be reminded that Yury Lyavonau and Mikalai Autukhovich are former political prisoners, sentenced to imprisonment on a far-fetched accusation for protection of the rights of entrepreneurs. In the beginning of 2008, a measure of punishment was changed for them to restriction of liberty. On February 10, 2009 a hearing on early conditional release of Mikalai Autukhovich was to take place in Vaukavysk.