A released political prisoner who refused to leave the country has disappeared in Belarus

The whereabouts of Mykola Statkevych (69), the leader of the Peopleʼs Community party and a former presidential candidate in Belarus, who was released from prison along with other political prisoners on September 11, are unknown. Statkevychʼs relatives, who have been imprisoned since 2020, have no information about him.

Radio Liberty writes about this.

"Of course, we have asked our American partners to clarify this situation, since no one will clearly respond to the official request [of the Belarusian opposition] from there [from Minsk]. This is not a matter of a few hours. We understand that it was night in America, that people had just flown away [the delegation led by the representative of the US President John Cole]. Therefore, it takes some time to understand what is happening with Mykola. Of course, his fate is very worrying," said Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition.

Statkevych refused to leave the territory of Belarus on September 11 — he was to be deported to Lithuania. As Belsat reports, citing Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya’s advisor Denys Kuchynsky, Statkevych “practically kicked down the door, jumped off the bus, and ran into the territory of Belarus”.

He stood at the border on the Belarusian side for several hours, he was visible on a surveillance camera. His wife, American diplomats, and several other people tried to convince him to leave Belarus, but failed. The Lithuanian side claims that Statkevich did not cross the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.

According to the publication "Nasha Nyva", on September 11, Belarusian propaganda telegram channels wrote that Statkevych had indeed crossed the Lithuanian border, but the next morning they began talking about his "disappearance".

One of the released and deported, an activist of the "Peopleʼs Community" Serhiy Sparysh said that he saw Statkevych on September 11 in the prison of the State Security Committee of Belarus. He was in "excellent moral condition."

At the same time, Sparysh expressed concern about his health and called on politicians, including the US President Donald Trump, to ensure that Statkevych had the right to live normally in Belarus and communicate with relatives and associates. According to Sparysh, Statkevych is convinced that a true Belarusian leader cannot live outside Belarus.

• On September 11, Trumpʼs representative John Cole met in Minsk with the self-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. The United States lifted sanctions on “Belavia” Airlines, and in response, Lukashenko released 52 political prisoners from prison.
• In addition to the Belarusians, they include six citizens of Lithuania, two each from Latvia, Poland and Germany, one French citizen and one from the United Kingdom.
• Later, Belarusian media reported that four of the released political prisoners, including Statkevych, refused to leave Belarus. They claimed that their release from prison and subsequent deportation from the country amounted to deportation, which is a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Although Belarus did not sign the Rome Statute, Lithuania, where they wanted to deport the former political prisoners, joined it.

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