Autukhovich not to apply for clemency
Mikalai Autukhovich. Photo by Yulia Darashkevich.
This was told by an activist from the district center of Haradok Leanid Haravy, referring to a letter received from the political prisoner. In particular, Leanid Haravy says: “In my previous letter I wrote to him that the head of state was waiting for at least three words from political prisoners – “Please release me”. However, Autukhovich said he was not going to write even three words.
Leanid Haravy allowed to quote the letter from Autukhovich. He writes: “I have my views. And I haven’t changed them all my life. Even if I knew they would give me an additional term, I would not write even three words! If you want to be unbroken, you should go all the way to the end. Without compromise, without any conditions. I did not do anything bad for the country and the people, I did not break any laws, why do I have to write an application? It will be wrong, I guess.”
Still Leanid Haravy says the political prisoner thanked everyone who congratulated him on his birthday. On January 7 Mikalai Autukhovich turned 50. Now he says: “It was nice to receive daily a large stack of letters. And it was even nicer to read these letters and postcards. This is huge support! It adds strength, when you feel so much positive energy in the letters.”
Leanid Haravy also believes that support through letters is necessary for those who were imprisoned for their beliefs. So he writes to political prisoners. Although very often censorship does not allow letters of support to reach the recipients. Then Statkevich, Ales Bialiatski or other political prisoners receive empty envelopes, but it is also a kind of a sign, as the letter was sent, but was labeled as “dangerous” or sincere.
