Three businessmen from Vaukavysk (Hrodna region, West of Belarus) Mikalai Autukhovich, right, Yury Liavonau, and Uladzimir Asipenka are again behind bars. According to the Internet based resource Belarusian News, prosecutors are desperate to pin upon them a 2004 house arson of the former local police chief Vital Katsuba. Katsuba himself has denied any complaints against the arrested men.
The Belarusian state TV channel announced that explosives and weapons were found at home of the three entrepreneur movement activists. This story was supported by the President who linked the detainees with the Independence Day blast in Minsk, “We had enough on the 3rd of July. Private persons are not allowed to keep automatic weapons. I cannot allow terror in this country.”
However, there were no charges of illegal arms possession pressed 
against the arrested men. A human rights defender Aleh Vouchak, right, commented on a situation in his interview to Charter’97. “There were no weapons or explosives confiscated in homes of Autukhovich, Liavonau and Asipenka, simply because none were there in the first place. The only thing confiscated was a soldering iron kit.”
Nonetheless, accused in ‘intentional destruction and/or damage of property’ two detained men are facing from 3 to 10 years of imprisonment, and Mikalai Autukhovich is facing up to 12 years in jail.
The authorities deny that arrests of the Vaukavysk businessmen were politically motivated. According to Lukashenka, ‘ordinary criminals’ are hiding behind a mask of political prisoners. However, experts believe that the businessmen were harassed for their civic activism. Mikalai Autukhovich, left, is one of the founders of a veteran organization The Fatherland Defenders. He refused to accept a medal to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Soviet troops pull out from Afghanistan. And he is also a fierce critic of government policies towards the Afghan war veterans.
Mikalai Autukhovich and Yury Liavonau are former political prisoners. They were sentenced to a term in jail; this punishment was replaced by restraint of liberty a year ago. Human rights defenders believe their imprisonment was related with their active involvement in the movement of private entrepreneurs dissatisfied with state policies.
