Translated material
Belarusian opposition leader Nikolai Statkevich was released
One of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition, Nikolai Statkevich, was released and allowed to remain in the country without deportation. This was reported by his wife Marina Adamovich. She added that Statkevich suffered a stroke and is now recovering; he has problems with speech.
On the same day as Statkevich, the artist Natalya Levaya was also released, writes the telegram channel “Pul Pervogo”. After the outbreak of a full-scale war, she left for Poland, but in 2023 she returned home and was detained right at the border. She was sentenced to six years in prison for making donations to opposition organizations and the Kalinovsky Regiment, which is fighting on the side of Ukraine. In the colony, she became pregnant after a date with her husband.
Statkevich was among more than fifty political prisoners who were released from colonies and on September 11, 2025, forcibly taken to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. Among those released were Radio Liberty journalist Igor Losik, anarchist Mykola Dedok, philosopher Vladimir Matskevich, and politician Dmitry Dashkevich. A total of 52 people left the colonies that day.
When the bus with the liberated people arrived at the border with Lithuania, Nikolai Statkevich refused to leave the country and remained in no man’s land, after which he returned to Belarusian territory. Later there were reports that the oppositionist was returned to the colony.
Statkevich is one of Alexander Lukashenko’s long-term political opponents, who ran against him in the 2020 elections.
The oppositionist was detained on May 31, 2020, a few months before the presidential elections, and in December 2021 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. According to investigators, Statkevich “was behind the involvement of representatives of the radical bloc in the mechanism to destabilize the situation in Belarus,” and in 2019, together with Sergei Tikhanovsky and Pavel Sevyarynets, they “disseminated public calls to prepare for radical actions” via the Internet.
The politician called the charges brought against him “nonsense” and refused to get acquainted with the case materials and participate in the trial.
The human rights center "Viasna" recognized Statkevich as a political prisoner.
Belarusian opposition leader Nikolai Statkevich was released