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Awtukhovich suspends his hunger strike

Mikalay Awtukhovich suspended his hunger strike after his meeting with a senior officer of the interior ministry's Corrections Department who is in charge of medical services, the imprisoned Vawkavysk businessman’s lawyer, Pavel Sapelka, told BelaPAN on Thursday.

“As a result of the meeting, which took place on June 22, the officer promised that Awtukhovich would be seen by a dental specialist within the next two days, who would examine him for the possibility of providing him with denture procedures,” Mr. Sapelka said.

“Such treatment can only be provided in Minsk,” he said. “If Awtukhovich is sent to a correctional institution outside the capital city, it will be impossible for him to receive the necessary treatment and he may resume his hunger strike and even refuse to drink.”

The 47-year-old Awtukhovich, who reportedly has serious problems with his teeth, is currently held in Minsk's Pretrial Detention Center No. 1. He went on the hunger strike on June 16.

“Awtukhovich’s hunger strike may help many of those who are held in prisons in Belarus,” human rights defender Aleh Volchak told BelaPAN. “The prison population is about 37,000. People are frequently sentenced to 10 and more years in prison and many of them cannot receive the treatment that Awtukhovich needs now. That’s why his hunger strike is important for them.”

On May 6, a panel of the Supreme Court of Belarus sentenced Mr. Awtukhovich to a prison term of five years and two months under the Criminal Code’s Article 295, which penalizes illegal operations with arms, ammunition and explosives, for five hunting rifle cartridges found in his safe.

In his trial, Mr. Awtukhovich, who had already spent more than a year in jail, was cleared of charges of “preparations for an act of terrorism” against Uladzimir Sawchanka, head of the Hrodna Regional Executive Committee, and Deputy Tax Minister Vasil Kamyanko, and of involvement in an arson attack on the house of Syarhey Katsuba, a former chief of the Vawkavysk district police department.

Opposition activists and human rights defenders believe that the charges against Mr. Awtukhovich were trumped up in revenge for his criticism and corruption accusations.

Mr. Awtukhovich lost 35 kilograms as a result of a three-month hunger strike held last year to protest his detention and prosecution.

Uladzimir Asipenka, who was sentenced last month to three years in prison in the Mikalay Awtukhovich case, has been transferred to a prison cell after undergoing three weeks of routine quarantine procedures in a correctional institution in Ivatsevichy, Brest region.