Haradok: Leanid Autukhou deprived of his driver’s license

The Haradok road police deprived civil activist Leanid Autukhou of his driver’s license for a year, so that “he wouldn’t drive to People’s Assemblies” (as he heard some police officer say behind his back). He was also fined 280,000 rubles, as he had allegedly committed a gross violation of the traffic rules on his return from the People’s Assembly on 8 October in Vitsebsk.

Mr. Autukhou is convinced of the political motivation of the decision: “I was stopped as soon as I drove out of the yard where the assembly was held. They accused me of crossing a solid line on the road. The testimonies of those who were in the car together with me, didn’t help: at first they took my driver’s license away for a month (I was issued a temporary ID instead), and in November the road police decided to deprive me of the license for a year, as a malignant violator.”

Leanid Autukhou has been driving for more than 25 years. He has driver’s license for three categories – A, B and C (which means he can drive trucks). He doesn’t have a stable job, and now he has been deprived of the opportunity to earn money by driving. During the whole time of his driving he violated the traffic rules just one time – exceeded the speed by 15 kilometers several years ago.

Mr. Autukhovich thinks that his punishment is not occasional. During the People’s Assembly he proposed to include the demand to release all political prisoners in its resolution. There is a flag of the European Union, a white-red-white ribbon and the slogan “For Niakliayeu!” in his car. Probably, this is why his car was detained by the road police.