Statkievič’s wife: my husband stands by his values

September 19, Pozirk. Opposition politician Mikałaj Statkievič’s 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 Adamovič told Lithuania’s LRT in an interview.

The politician was one of 52 dissidents pardoned on September 11 following Alaksandar Łukašenka’s meeting with John Coale, US deputy special envoy to Ukraine. On the same day, all of them were taken to Lithuania—except for Statkievič, who refused to leave Belarus.

He remained for several hours at the Kamienny Łoh border checkpoint on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, as confirmed by CCTV footage. His current whereabouts are unknown.

According to Naša Niva, he may be held at the Hłybokaje penal colony in the Viciebsk region. That is the same prison where Statkievič 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.

Adamovič said she learned of her husband’s release from their son and was able to speak to him briefly by phone.

Statkievič confirmed that he had been kept incommunicado since February 2023, though he continued writing letters to his wife.

“He never doubted for a second—just as I didn’t—that we would continue to support each other,” Adamovič said. “He managed to tell me he was going back to Belarus,” she added, noting that he understood the trip to Lithuania was “one-way only.”

On the phone, Statkievič sounded “incredibly energetic and powerful,” she said. “It 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.”

Adamovič described her husband as a man convinced that values and convictions “are worth exactly as much as a person is willing to pay for them.”

“If someone declares publicly important values but then shows that personal safety matters more, those values are devalued in the public’s eyes. Mikałaj cannot allow that to happen. This is another reason he stayed in Belarus.”

Pozirk thanks LRT for the interview. We cannot speak directly with Adamovič, as she risks a lengthy prison sentence in Belarus for giving an interview to a media outlet designated by the authorities as an “extremist group.”

Politics

Politics

Łukašenka comments on Statkievič’s disappearance

September 17, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has belittled his political opponent Mikałaj Statkievič, who refused to leave the country as part of the regime’s deal with the Americans. The Belarusian ruler made the remarks in Minsk today, hinting that Statkievič is …

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