Aleh Vouchak: Secret services were ordered to throw an obstinate entrepreneur into prison

Human rights activists call the case against Mikalai Autukhovich “politically motivated” and connect it with secret service activities.

It became known on July 17 that a criminal case on suspicion of preparing a terroristic act was instigated the opposition entrepreneur from Vaukavysk Mikalai Autukhovich. Autukhovich is suspected of preparing physical elimination of Uladzimir Sauchanka, head of the Hrodna region executive committee, and Vasily Kamenka, deputy minister of taxes and levies, using “weapon and explosive devices”. According to “Yezhednevnik” a grenade launcher found in Vaukavysk in 2005 is meant under weapon and explosive devices. On February 8, 2009, on the day Autukhovich was arrested, no explosive devices were found in his flat.

Aleh Vouchak, a human rights activist and one of the initiators of the organizing committee on creation of war veterans “Defenders of Motherland”, told in an interview to www.charter97.org that the new criminal case against the Vaukavysk businessman was connected with his relations with officials.

“We should view this case in the context of the problem, Autukhovich had with the local authorities in 2003,” Aleh Vouchak says. “Autukhovich wrote to governmental bodies and to Alyaksandr Lukashenka about corruption in the “vertical” of Vaukavysk. After that Uladzimir Sauchanka held a meeting and the secret services were ordered to throw the obstinate entrepreneur into prison. Moreover, in 2004, Autukhovich run for “parliamentary” elections and well-known among the local population. The authorities began to destroy his business – taxi service. In accordance with the court decision in 2006, property of about $300.000 was attached – cars, garages. He held protest pickets, went on hunger strikes. The authorities understood that they would answer for their actions after democratic changes, and got afraid.”

According to the human rights activist, the local law enforcement agencies have a direct relation to the new criminal code against Mikalai Autukhovich.

“I become more and more convinced that Autukhovich is being baited not by the “center” but by the local authorities,” Aleh Vouchak says. “There are many questions and dislocations in this terroristic act. In 2005, Autukhovich, as other oppositionist in the Hrodna region, was checked over the grenade launcher found in Vaukavysk. But no proofs were found. I tell you an investigator that very serious investigative activities are carried out in such cases. If in 2005 it was said that Autukhovich had no relation to the grenade launcher, why then is it said now he is connected with it? Moreover, Mikalai Autukhovich was arrested on October 14, 2005, but the grenade launcher was found on October 31. What relation can the businessman have to it? They began to look for possible guilty people. Who is the main enemy in Vaukavysk? Autukhovich. It is an easy means for investigation to get rid of the “inconvenient” weapon.

As Aleh Vouchak says, the new case against the Vaukavysk entrepreneur is politically motivated.

“In any case, the case will be send to court, and the sooner this happens, the better,” the human rights activist says. “The trial must be open, it is important. Journalists, ambassadors, human rights defenders should have a possibility to attend it. I see political background in this case. The local law enforcement agencies are on war against each other, they want to show Lukashenka their value. They want to show that if they failed to discover the terroristic act in Minsk on July 4, they discover the “terroristic act” happened five years ago. Such a figure as Autukhovich is very convenient for them.”

Mikalai Autukhovich and two activists of the entrepreneurs’ movement from Vaukavysk Yury Lyavonau and Uladzimir Asipenka were detained on February 8 with the approval of the prosecutor of the Hrodna region. On February 18, the three were charged under article 218 of the Criminal Code (intentional damage to or destruction of property of citizens).

Mikalai Autukhovich held a three-month hunger strike in a detention facility in Minskhe stopped it only on July 16; doctors say he is in critical condition.

Human rights activists consider the detained to be political prisoners drawing attention to the fact that Autukhovich and Lyavonau were convicted before and found prisoners of conscience by the international community.