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Political prisoner Mikalay Awtukhovich turns 50

 

Mikalay Awtukhovich, a businessman widely viewed as a political prisoner, marked his 50th birthday in a prison in Hrodna on January 7.

On May 6, 2010, the Supreme Court of Belarus sentenced Mr. Awtukhovich, a resident of Vawkavysk, to five years and two months in a medium-security correctional institution under the Criminal Code's Article 295, which penalizes the illegal handling of arms, ammunition and explosives, because of five hunting rifle cartridges found in his safe.

Mr. Awtukhovich, who had already spent more than a year in jail, was cleared of charges of "preparations for an act of terrorism" against Uladzimir Sawchanka, then head of the Hrodna Regional Executive Committee, and Deputy Tax Minister Vasil Kamyanko, and of involvement in an arson attack on the house of a former chief of the Vawkavysk district police department.

In December 2011, Mr. Awtukhovich was placed in a "cell-type room" in punishment for an unspecified offense. Two days later, he reportedly cut his wrists after being transferred to a room holding people at the very bottom of prison hierarchy who are shunned by fellow inmates.

In a trial held in Correctional Institution No. 5 in Ivatsevichy, Brest region, on January 17, 2012, a judge of the Ivatsevichy District Court found Mr. Awtukhovich guilty of persistent violations of prison rules and ordered his transfer to a cell-type prison.

The ruling meant that the man would have to serve the remaining 27 months of his sentence in a prison where there is higher security and more restrictions.

Opposition activists and human rights defenders believe that the charges against Mr. Awtukhovich were trumped up in revenge for his criticism and corruption accusations. In December 2010, US-based Freedom House entered his name in its list of the world's most important imprisoned dissidents. //BelaPAN