Political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich on hunger strike for 90 days

Though the health condition of the political prisoner has deteriorated considerably, he has lost 35 kilograms of weight, the Belarusian authorities continue to ignore the protest of the arrested entrepreneur from Vaukavysk.

Mikalai Autukhovich, a leader of entrepreneurs, a veteran of Afghan war, awarded with Order of the Red Star, Medals for Valour and for Combat Service, was arrested on February 8, 2009 with his colleagues Yury Lyavonau and Uladzimir Asipenka, unreasonably charged with organizing arsons in 2005.

The political prisoner has been on protest hunger strike in the Minsk pre-trial detention facility since April 16 demanding to send the case to court or to change the measure of restraint from custody to release on own recognizance to all persons involved in the same criminal case. The detained has become weak and thin. Autukhovich is given drips every day.

The term of detention of Mikalai Autukhovich was extended till August 8. Lyudmila Paremskaya, the director of Nika-Trans-22222, where the businessman worked before the arrest, and former veteran of Afghan War Kanstantsin Ulanau were arrested in the case of Autukhovich last week by officers of the Main Organized Crime Department.

Lyudmila Paremskaya’s family addressed the Vaukavysk militia department for search for her. The advice was given by militiamen, because the location of the woman, detained on July 7, is still unknown.

The second detained in the case of Vaukavysk entrepreneurs, 57-year-old Minsk dweller Kanstantsin Ulanau is in the special detention facility in Akrestsin Street. The term of detention for the Afghan War veteran was extended to 10 days.

The veteran’s wife Tatsyana Ulanava made a complaint to the Main Investigation Department of Ministry of Internal Affairs. The woman wants to receive a written answer to the question who authorized her husband’s detention, why security officials who searched Ulanau’s flat and summer cottage didn’t give any explanations. Tatsyana Ulanava believes all claims to her husband are groundless.

Human rights activists think Lyudmila Paremskaya and Kanstantsin Ulanau mayhave been arrested to make them give evidence against Mikalai Autukhovich. No investigative activists have been carried out the Vaukavysk entrepreneurs since their arrest in February 2009. Independent observers think the investigation doesn’t have proofs of guilt of Autukhovich, Lyavonau, and Asipenka.

Belarusian human rights activists consider the detainees to be political prisoners drawing attention to the fact that Autukhovich and Lyavonau were convicted before and recognized prisoners of conscience by the international community.