November, 25, Pozirk. The interior ministry informed family members of opposition politician Mikałaj Statkievič, who refused to leave Belarus after being pardoned on September 11, that he is serving his original 14-year prison sentence.
Statkievič’s relatives received this response following a formal request, the Viasna Human Rights Center said. There is no information about where precisely he is held.
The politician was one of 52 Belarusian dissidents liberated more than two months ago as part of Alaksandar Łukašenka’s deal with Washington. All freed people were taken to Lithuania, except for Statkievič, who refused to leave and remained for several hours at the Kamienny Łoh border checkpoint on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, as confirmed by CCTV footage.
Statkievič was initially arrested ahead of the 2020 presidential election and then sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges widely seen as politically motivated. In 2022, Belarusian authorities designated him as an “extremist.”
UN officials have repeatedly contacted Minsk regarding the alleged ill-treatment of the politician in prison, including incommunicado detention, and “the devastating effect of this ill-treatment on his health due to his advanced age.”
