Authorities promised to “rot” Mikalai Autukhovich

A Radio Svaboda journalist tells how a high official from the Hrodna region threatened political prisoner Autukhovich some years ago.

Radio Svaboda journalist Yahor Mayorchyk was close to political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich, when the latter was on hungers strike in 2003. During the week the journalist spent in Vaukavysk, he learnt much about character of Mikalai Autukhovich and became a witness of how the local authorities were threatening the businessman from Vaukavysk (here is a story told by Yahor Mayorchyk).

I was in Vaukavysk in autumn 2003 when Mikalai Autukhovich and leaders of Nika-trans company were on hunger strike and told about it on air every day.

I spent seven days in Vaukavysk and what surprised me most was that Mikalai Autukhovich flatly denied any political motives in his case. He told he was a businessman, he did good for the town, didn’t get into politics, and the situation around him was caused by imperfect legislation and interest of the tax service in him.

He repeated this several times sitting in his office with a portrait of Alyaksandr Lukashenka hanging behind on the wall behind him. Later, he removed this portrait and hung an icon there. But at that time he tried not to speak about politics.

Moreover, when trade union activists from Hrodna came to meet with him, he ordered not to let these people to his car fleet and repeated he didn’t want to have any relation to politics.

Autukhovich had a sense of humour, I hope he still has it. He told jokes often when he had to find a way out, and this took the heat out of the situation. Autukhovich is a romantic in a certain sense. He told me an idea of creating a transportation firm to his mind after he had visited his friend in Hamburg and seen that all taxis in the city were white Mercedeses. He thought it was possible to do the same in Vaukavysk. He returned and bought many white Mercedeses, it was a beginning of Nika-trans firm.

Naive as it may seem, but he always hoped for better. I visited Vaukavysk again a year after the hunger strike and went to editor’s office of “Mestnaya Gazeta”, published by Andrei Shantarovich. Suddenly, Autukhovich entered the office. He said he had just come from Hrodna, where he attended an emergency meeting in the region executive committee. The meeting was dedicated to the case of Autukhovich that was being investigated for some months.

We were sitting and talking, he said he could tell something, but there were things he couldn’t tell. Autukhovich’s phone rang, he answered and expression of his face changed. A man phoning him was shouting so loudly that all people in the office could hear him.

The man was shouting: “I’ll rot you! I’ll throw you into prison! Don’t think you are stronger than I am! We’ll see who will win!” Autukhovich didn’t want to tell who was phoning, he just said it was a high executive of the Hrodna region. He recorded this conversation to his cell phone. I offered him to make a copy of the record to have evidence in case something happened. He refused, though I promised not to spread that record and tell I have it. He refused and told it would have been wrong of him to do so. I don’t know where this record is now.