Political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich fears new repressions from the authorities of the Hrodna prison.

Aleh Vouchak, the head of the organisation Legal Assistance to Citizens and a former prosecution investigator, gave an interview to charter97.org. He said he received a reply to the request he and Aliaksandr Kamarouski had sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office on 25 September. They demanded to check if two sanctions against Mikalai Autukhovich were imposed legally. The reply says their request was resent to the Prosecutor’s Office in Hrodna.

The human rights activist says the political prisoner worries about the recent news concerning him.

– Mikalai Autukhovoch says not to believe the prison authorities if they say he had a stroke. His health condition is quite well, – Aleh Vouchak says. – The matter is that the prison staff had received an order to give him the status of persistent violator of prison rules a year before his release. We think the order comes not from Lukashenka, but from the officials involved in the first criminal case against Autukhovich. They awfully fear his release.

The human rights defender notes that Mikalai Autukhovich said to the prison authorities several times that he wouldn’t violate prison rules. He plans to solve his health problems during three or four years after the release.

-It’s obvious that the prison authorities are under pressure. They are going to issue the third warning to him. He resorted to extreme measures and cut his abdomen. He had to make a statement via Narodnaya Volia newspaper to describe all violations committed by the prison staff. Inmates cannot complain about actions by prison officers, because complaints never go outside prison. Those who want to seek justice are thrown into a punishment cell – said Vouchak.

Mikalai Autukhovich was imprisoned on 8 February 2009, for criticism of the local authorities. He faced fabricated charges of “illegal actions with firearms, ammunition and explosives.”

On 6 May 2010, Mikalai Autukhovich was sentenced by the Supreme Court to 5 years and 2 months in a maximum security correctional colony under part 3 of article 295 of the Criminal Code, though his case fell apart at the trial for lack of evidence.

Mikalai Autukhovich is a veteran of the Soviet War in Afghanistan, a successful businessman and an oppositional activist.