English

Young opposition activists demonstrate in Minsk in support of Awtukhovich, Asipenka

About 15 young opposition activists were arrested by police after they attempted to stage a demonstration in downtown Minsk on Monday evening to mark one year since the arrest of Vawkavysk entrepreneur Mikalay Awtukhovich and his associate Uladzimir Asipenka.

At 6 p.m., the young people formed a line in Kastrychnitskaya Square, displaying images of Messrs. Awtukhovich and Asipenka, who are widely viewed as political prisoners.

Plainclothesmen immediately surrounded the youths, and two uniformed police officers began warning them that the demonstration was unsanctioned.

Two or three minutes later, two police buses arrived at the scene and the demonstrators were bundled onto them.

Like on other similar occasions, policemen used force against journalists, blocking their photo and video cameras from operating, pushing them away from the demonstrators and not allowing even those with voice recorders to approach.

Messrs. Awtukhovich and Asipenka were arrested by personnel of Almaz, an elite anti-terror police unit, in armed raids in their hometown of Vawkavysk on February 8, 2009.

The interior ministry announced after six months that Mr. Awtukhovich was charged with making preparations a few years ago for murdering Uladzimir Sawchanka, chairman of the Hrodna Regional Executive Committee, and Deputy Tax Minister Vasil Kamyanko.

The 46-year-old Awtukhovich staged a hunger strike between April 16 and July 16, protesting his detention and demanding that the case should be either referred to court or all those under investigation in the case should be released on their own recognizance.

Mr. Awtukhovich, a veteran of the USSR’s Afghanistan war and a holder of three combat medals, was among civil society activists who petitioned the government in January to restore state benefits for the veterans of the war. Mr. Awtukhovich refused to accept a jubilee medal that the Belarusian government distributed to Afghanistan veterans on the occasion of 20 years since the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from that country.

In 2004, Mr. Awtukhovich unsuccessfully ran for Parliament.