Mikalai Authukhovich deprived of meeting with mother

When the political prisoner’s mother Lidzija Autukhovich came to the prison in Hrodna in order to meet her son, she learnt that the meeting had been forbidden, Radio Svaboda reports. No reasons for the decision were provided.

“How would I know? They won’t tell. This is their right: they allow a meeting if they want, if they don’t – they do not allow. They do what they want. They did not allow a meeting and that is it. It is a good thing, though, they did accept a parcel. 30 kilograms. Food and clothes. Everything was heavy, whatever you buy it weights something – you cannot take much. I saw son last year and I will probably not see him this year. I will, probably, not see him until he is released. The only thing left is to write letters. I am waiting for him, of course. Many are waiting for him, even more so the mother”, - said Lidzija Autukhovich.

Mikalai Authukhovich was sentenced to 5 years and 2 months in prison and is serving the term in the prison in Hrodna, from which he is supposed to be released in April next year. Relatives and human rights activists worry for how he will survive the winter. Mikalai Authukhovich tld that last winter he had to sleep wearing a cap. Even during the day it was so cold that it was hard to write letters. The information came from Volha Mikalajchyk, a civic activist and a film director, with whom the political prisoner is in correspondence.

The entrepreneur from Vaukavysk Mikalai Authukhovich was sentenced for storing several bullets. Human rights activists and opposition consider him a political prisoner, who was punished for fighting corruption among the authorities.