People's Political Prisoner

Mikalai Autukhovich is back on the front line.

This week the big news in Belarus was the announcement of the date of Mikalai Autukhovich's trial and the amendments to the Criminal Code adopted by the "house of representatives", which provide for the death penalty for preparing a terrorist act. So many Belarusians asked themselves whether those amendments were adopted urgently specially for Autukhovich.

The question is not idle and even somewhat rhetorical. The fact is that Mikalai Autukhovich is not even fighting the regime, but rather is locked in mortal combat with it. He is a figure of such calibre that it is difficult even to place him on a par with any of our fellow countrymen. He alone is as fearless as a berserker; as fair as Themis; as uncompromising as a Jacobin. And I am sorry that those born in the nineties or at the turn of the century do not even know that Mikalai Autukhovich has been waging his endless battle for almost twenty years - without respite, without compromise, without stopping.

Most people probably don't remember that taxi drivers in a white ironed shirt and with a Mercedes - this is not the "premium" class with the corresponding tariff, which appeared a decade ago. Such drivers used to serve the citizens of Vaukavysk in the late nineties, when dirty yellow Volgas prevailed in Minsk. And that Vaukavysk service "Taxi 22222" was created by Afghan war veteran Mikalai Autukhovich. The drivers there used to be mostly Afghan veterans - same soldiers to whom he gave an opportunity to work and earn money. It was then that the state noticed him - even back then it did not like anyone who stood out.

That was the very moment when Mikalai could still integrate into the system and do business to his heart's content. All he had to do was to get the signal right and start bringing it in, offering it, presenting - in the bosses' offices, with a bow and a coy smile. But he went into action. And, of course, he ended up in prison. It was 2005. A political prisoner was then considered a rare biological species.

Autukhovich was on hunger strike in the Hrodna pre-trial detention center for 74 days. At first he was asked to stop the hunger strike by his relatives. Then - by fellow-workers. In the end of the second month, when doctors said that the non-reversible processes had started in Autukhovich's body and that every day could become his last, the residents of Vaukavysk wrote a letter to Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The letter was signed by more than a thousand people: "We, the undersigned soldiers-internationalists and common residents of Vaukavysk, know Mikalai Autukhovich as an honest and principled man who has always kept his word. We know him as a soldier who has passed through the heat of war in Afghanistan, and who has been honoured with ten government awards, including the Order of the Red Star, medals for 'Bravery', 'For Combat Merits', and 'Excellence in Military Service'. We ask you to save this man's life. No other resident of the town has done as much good for Vaukavysk as Autukhovich did. Moreover, Autukhovich himself has never made a show of it. He simply did good deeds".

Having lost 38 kilos, Autukhovich ended up in the prison hospital. On December 26, 2005 he was placed under house arrest. However, it was not a gesture of good will and certainly not the reaction of merciful Lukashenka to the letter of the townspeople. It was just that bothering with a last-legger who might die at any moment on New Year's Eve - the turnkeys wouldn't need such a pain in the arse.

The trial was set for February 9. However, the defendant did not appear in court. He simply disappeared. However, like a real soldier, a disciplined war veteran, Autukhovich did not disappear without any explanations or farewells. He wrote a farewell letter to the Prosecutor General: "I, a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, entrepreneur Mikalai Autukhovich, make an official statement that I cannot, I don't want and will not tolerate any more lawlessness against violation of constitutional rights of common people. The officials have cornered me like a helpless beast in order to imprison me for a long time. After three years of repression, the officials must have understood that I am not afraid of them because the truth is on my side. I will always fight for this truth until justice prevails. And those who do not like it are the corrupt people and cowards. I will not kneel down in front of arbitrariness".

Mikalai did not ask anyone for help. He did not turn to journalists or human rights activists. He simply disappeared, remaining a lone warrior. He did not need help, sympathy, publicity. He preferred a one-to-one struggle: Autukhovich versus the state. He was put on the wanted list, of course, and the all points bulletins were posted in every police station. Under the passport photo of Mikalai it was written there: "M. Autukhovich has a negative attitude towards the existing political system and the head of the state".

Mikalai was arrested for the second time on April 8, 2006 - in Minsk, in the street. He was taken back to the Hrodna prison. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. After his release he didn't even stay at large for a year - he was arrested again, it was for preparing a terrorist attack: he allegedly had planned the attacks against the chairman of the Hrodna Regional Executive Committee and the deputy minister for taxes and duties. As a result, he was convicted for keeping five cartridges for a hunting rifle and was sentenced to five years of high security. Mikalai slashed wrists in the Hrodna prison in 2013 - it was his reaction to being abused by the administration. The only available protest for someone like Autukhovich: life-threatening, risky, fraught with consequences - from adding time served to a mental hospital. But he has learned no other way - only into an open combat, mortal though it is.

Now he is back on the front line. The trial is scheduled for May 16. And Autukhovich will be tried under ten articles of the Criminal Code, including terrorism and treason. I have no doubt that the bottom line will be some forgotten cartridge from a hunting rifle, as it was in 2009. Only, the regime is not the same as it used to be, it does not catch mice and does not look for cartridges, but simply puts down on paper its own nightmares. Verdicts are pronounced on the basis of these nightmares, shadows on the wall, voices that creep in the dark.

The only thing I cannot understand is why Mikalai Autukhovich has not yet been recognized as a political prisoner. However, he doesn't give a toss about it. And for Belarusians, he is a political prisoner and a hero, no recognition needed. Naive, courageous, uncompromising. A soldier, an entrepreneur, a politician. In other words, a real people's political prisoner.

Iryna Khalip, specially for Charter97.org

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