Belarusian political prisoner Statkevich released from prison. He suffered a stroke

Belarusian political prisoner and former presidential candidate Mykola Statkevich, who was returned to prison after refusing to leave the country, has been released home.

This was reported by his wife Maryna Adamovich on February 19, the Viasna human rights center reports.

According to his wife, Statkevich suffered a stroke and now has problems with speech.

What preceded

On September 11, 2025, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander pardoned Statkevich and 51 other political prisoners. All of them were to be deported to Lithuania.

However, four of the released political prisoners, including Statkevich, refused to leave Belarus. They stated that their release from prison and subsequent expulsion from the country amounted to deportation.

Statkevich refused deportation and, as Belsat reports, on the way to the Lithuanian border, “practically kicked down the door, jumped off the bus, and ran into Belarus”. A few hours later, he was detained in Belarus and taken back to special regime colony No. 13 in the city of Hlyboke in the Vitebsk region.

It was there that Statkevich spent the last 2 years and 7 months in solitary confinement in "incommunicado" mode — without any contact with the outside world.

Statkevich served his first prison term in 2010–2015 for participating in protests after the presidential elections, in which he was a candidate. He was arrested for the second time in May 2020, before the elections and the protests began. Statkevich was sentenced to 14 years in a special regime colony on charges of organizing mass riots.

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