{"id":156269,"date":"2025-09-19T14:45:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T11:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/156269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"statkievics-wife-my-husband-stands-by-his-values","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/156269\/","title":{"rendered":"Statkievi\u010d\u2019s wife: my husband stands by his values"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n (Belsat)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

September 19, Pozirk. <\/em><\/strong>Opposition politician Mika\u0142aj Statkievi\u010d\u2019s decision not to leave Belarus after being pardoned last week reflects his dignity, convictions and values, which he is unwilling to abandon, his wife Maryna Adamovi\u010d told Lithuania\u2019s LRT<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The politician was one of 52 dissidents pardoned on September 11 following Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s meeting with John Coale, US deputy special envoy to Ukraine. On the same day, all of them were taken to Lithuania\u2014except for Statkievi\u010d, who refused to leave Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remained for several hours at the Kamienny \u0141oh border checkpoint on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, as confirmed by CCTV footage. His current whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Na\u0161a Niva<\/em>, he may be held at the H\u0142ybokaje penal colony in the Viciebsk region. That is the same prison where Statkievi\u010d had been serving his 14-year sentence in a politically motivated case. For the past two and a half years, he had been held incommunicado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adamovi\u010d said she learned of her husband\u2019s release from their son and was able to speak to him briefly by phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statkievi\u010d confirmed that he had been kept incommunicado since February 2023, though he continued writing letters to his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe never doubted for a second\u2014just as I didn\u2019t\u2014that we would continue to support each other,\u201d Adamovi\u010d said. \u201cHe managed to tell me he was going back to Belarus,\u201d she added, noting that he understood the trip to Lithuania was \u201cone-way only.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the phone, Statkievi\u010d sounded \u201cincredibly energetic and powerful,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the voice of a completely unbroken man, despite the fact that during the five years and three and a half months he spent in the colony, most of the time was in solitary confinement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adamovi\u010d described her husband as a man convinced that values and convictions \u201care worth exactly as much as a person is willing to pay for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf someone declares publicly important values but then shows that personal safety matters more, those values are devalued in the public\u2019s eyes. Mika\u0142aj cannot allow that to happen. This is another reason he stayed in Belarus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pozirk<\/em> thanks LRT<\/em> for the interview. We cannot speak directly with Adamovi\u010d, as she risks a lengthy prison sentence in Belarus for giving an interview to a media outlet designated by the authorities as an \u201cextremist group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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