Mikalai Autukhovich: “Statements about amnesty are throwing dust in eyes of Europe”
- 21.05.2012, 12:12
Mikalai Autukhovich, a political prisoner, believes that the statement of Alyaksandr Lukashenka about an amnesty in July is another attempt to adjourn sanctions against the regime.
The inmate of Hrodna prison, a businessman from Vaukavysk Mikalai Autukhovich has sent a letter to an activist Tatsyana Kim. He expresses his opinion on the upcoming amnesty in July, Radio Svoboda informs.
Mikalai Autukhovich thinks that he cannot count on being amnestied, as the majority of political prisoners. In general, in the talks about amnesty Mikalai Autukhovich has seen another attempt of Lukashenka’s regime to postpone imposing of harsh economic sanctions y Europe. Tatsyana Kim quotes passages from Mikalai Autukhovich’s letter:
“In order to avoid sanctions, he is going to release political prisoners little by little. Several variants are possible here. He can release 1-2 persons at a time, and trading in the rest of the political prisoners according to a list. And it is to drag on until the election. But the main aim is to prevent imposing of the new economic sanctions. According to the second variant, he can release almost everyone, and continue bargaining about the rest to the last, and temporizing. If Europeans would be caught twice with the same bait, he is going to use that for sure. And he can keep everyone in prison until economic sanctions are lifted. But in any case the main aim is to protract this process until the election. That’s the strategy. If we wanted, he would release everyone long ago. But a game is going on. And the talks about the amnesty are dust in the eyes of Europe. People in Europe should understand that. It is impossible to make an individual amnesty tailored for Statkevich, or for anybody else.”
Mikalai Autukhovich is kept in a so-called “closed” prison as a persistent violator of the prison regime. He is limited in the number of meetings with relatives and parcels. The businessman was sentenced to 5 years on charges related to illegal actions with arms.