February 19, Pozirk. Authorities in Belarus have released Mikałaj Statkievič, an outspoken critic of the government, from prison, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported citing the politician’s wife.
He is recovering after a stroke and has a speech problem, said wife Maryna Adamovič on Facebook.
Statkievič, leader of the Narodnaja Hramada Social Democratic Party, was one of 52 Belarusian dissidents liberated five 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 Belarus and remained for several hours at the Kamienny Łoh border checkpoint on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, as confirmed by CCTV footage.
In November 2025, the interior ministry informed his family members that he was taken back to prison to serve his original 14-year sentence.
Statkievič was initially arrested ahead of the 2020 presidential election and then sentenced to a lengthy prison term 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.”
