Zmicer Abaudouski son of Sergei Abaudouski, a renowned human rights activist from Mogilev. Repression against Abaudouski began shortly before 20 July 1999 which was according to the Constitution of 1996 the date on which President Lukashenko should end his presidency term. On that day the opposition scheduled protests.

Chronicle of repression

On 10 July 1999 Zmicer Abaudouski was arrested and placed in custody of Mogilev prison. Initially, he was accused of two thefts. Revisions, that were conducted in his case were very strange. They were held not in his apartment, but in his father’s house. At that time Sergei Abaudouski was running human rights monitoring in Belarus, including the monitoring of violations of the law during the presidential election in 1999, that was initiated by the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council Victor  Ganchar (who disappeared two months later, in September 1999 ).

In July 1999, Abaudouski was accused of rape. Criminal case seemed to be fabricated, the more that the victim did not recognize the attacker and pointed to a completely different man. During his imprisonment Zmicer Abaudouski went on a hunger strike to protest against injustice and repression used against him and his family. He was on hunger strike for 55 days. His health deteriorated, he was transferred to the hospital where he was resuscitated.

Abaudouski’s case was repeatedly examined by the court. When the case was heard for the first time he was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly stealing shoes. In the second case of theft he was completely cleared of allegations – he had an alibi as at the time of the theft he was not in town. After that the judgment was appealed, and the Mogilev district court remanded the case for further consideration.

Abaudouski remained in custody even though according to the new Criminal Code, which entered into force on 1 January 2001 it was unlawful to keep a prisoner in custody for longer than 18 months without official accusation. Zmicer Abaudouski spent in prison more than two years. It was not the first attempt of the authorities to influence Sergei Abaudouski by harassing his son. In 1998, his second son, Janek, was forced to apply for political refugee status in Poland, after the authorities began to persecute him for taking part in the actions of the opposition.

On 23 March 23 2003, Zmicer Abaudouski died prematurely. He was 53 years old.