District newspaper deprived Autukhovich of Afghan war veteran title

The political prisoner’s name was not on the list of the participants of the warfare from Vaukavysk district.

It was published in a district newspaper Nash Chas. It also provided the biographies of the natives of Vaukavysk district, who took part in the war in Afghanistan. The district newspaper did not mention a political prisoner Mikalaj Autukhovich.

Mikalaj Autukhovich was born on 7 January 1963 in Vaukavysk. From 1981 he was on military service in Saratov region of Russia as a driver of missile troops of strategic purpose. Later he finished ensign school and asked to be sent to serve in Afghanistan. For guarding a bridge near Kandahar and participation in other operations he was awarded a Red Star order and two medals – For Courage and For Service in Battle. He retired from the army in 1991 in Vaukavysk as a senior ensign and started a business.

For the first time Mikalaj Autukhovich was arrested in October 2005 after starting to actively fight for his business (the entrepreneur had a taxi firm) and take long hunger strikes. The entrepreneur was sentenced to three in a half years in prison after being accused of tax evasion. He was one of the six political prisoners, released as the result of the USA and EU’s tough sanctions.

For the second time Mikalaj Autukhovich was arrested on 8 February 2009 and then tried on 6 May 2010 by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus according to the part 3 of the article 295 of the Criminal Code (unlawful actions with firearms, ammunition and explosives). Despite the whole failure of the criminal case due to the absence of evidence, he was sentenced to 5 years and 2 months of freedom deprivation in the regime of high security.

By court’s decision as of 17 January 2012 the penal conditions have been changed for tougher ones and Mikalaj Autukhovich has been transferred from the colony number 5 in Ivacevichy to the prison number one in Hrodna.

Autukhovich did not acknowledge the guilt in court and claimed that he was being prosecuted for anticorruption activities. He attempted suicide because of the pressure and provocations on the part of prison administrations.

Photo: nn.by