Veterans of Soviet-Afghan war want to know truth about Autukhovich's state

Veterans of the Soviet War in Afghanistan filed a complaint to the prosecutor general.

Aleh Vouchak, the head of the organisation Legal Assistance to Citizens and co-head of the organising committee to create the republican association of Afghan War veterans “Defenders of Motherland”, sent the text of the complaint to charter97.org.

“We received information in September 2013 that inmate of the Hrodna prison Mikalai Autukhovich had to cut his abdomen protesting against illegal actions by the prison authorities and trying to stop ungrounded criticism from prison officers. In this regard, we filed a complaint to you on September 21, 2013. We hoped prosecution bodies would strictly follow the law on prosecution bodies and carry out a prosecutor's inquiry, but our complaint, in violation of the current legislation, was sent to the body we complained about, namely to colonel Talachek, the head of the corrections department for the Hrodna region,” the letter says.

The authors of the appeal say their previous complaint had been in the Prosecutor General's Office for 18 days and was then sent to the prosecutor's office of the Hrodna region. No inquiries were carried out.

“We studied the results of the inquiry of October 21, 2013, and came to a conclusion that the corrections department for the Hrodna region didn't carry out a full unbiased inquiry and didn't reply to all questions of the complaint,” the Afghan War veterans say.

The authors demand a reasoned written reply to the following questions: How many sanctions inmate Autukhovich have as of November 20, 2013? Why were the sanctions imposed? Were the sanctions imposed legally? They ask to lift the sanctions if they were imposed illegally.

The veterans of the Afghan War also ask why Autkhovich cut his abdomen, who provoked the incident and whether he received medical care during his prison term in connection with his teeth problems.

They also wrote prosecutor general Aliaksandr Kaniuk that the complaint should be investigated by officers of the prosecutor general's office in accordance with the law on prosecution and ask to not send it to the body they complain about.

We remind that Mikalai Autukhovich was among six political prisoners, who were released due to the tough sanctions of the US and the EU. He was detained again on February 8, 2009, and tried in 2010 for keeping ammunition (five cartridges). He faced serious health problems after long hunger strikes and lack of medical care.

Mikalai Autukhovich was sentenced to 5 years in prison under part 3 of article 295 (illegal actions in relation to fire arms, ammunition and explosives). The political prisoner was given additional 2 months in prison, because he committed a new crime without serving 2 months of his previous prison term. He was sentenced to 5 years and 2 month in a maximum security prison.