Businessman Mikalai Autukhovich, who has been on hunger-strike for 32 days, will be examined for his state of psychic health
The investigators decided that the psychic state of the Vaukavysk businessman Mikalai Autukhovich, now under arrest in Hrodna prison, has to be examined, said Radio Liberty. The reasons: he is on long-term hunger-strike, hinted at the possibility of the suicide and reproached those responsible for his imprisonment during the investigation.
Possibly, this decision was taken because Mikalai Autukhovich had said in a statement to the prison governor that he was really prepared to die behind bars and if that happened he would first of all accuse Uladzimier Sauchanka, Chair of the Regional Executive Committee, and those people who had put their signatures under an authorization to launch criminal proceedings”.
Soon the prisoner will be examined by experts that have to decide: whether he was sane when committing the crime (avoidance of large taxes) and during the detention in prison. Such examination could have been ordered immediately because Autukhovich wrote his statement to the prison governor at the very start of the arrest. Now he is in a very weakened state and he will find it difficult to answer the questions of the expert psychiatrists.
The investigation into the Autukhovich case must be over on November 30. The criminal case against the businessman concerns the second part of Article 243, which provides for punishment of three to seven years in prison. The court may also confiscate the property.