Марина Адамович и Николай Статкевич. Фото: Марина Адамович
Mikalai Statkevich has been held all this time in the penal colony in Hlybokaye, from which he was taken away in September 2025, his wife Maryna Adamovich told Novaya Gazeta. Europe.
According to her, after he refused to leave Belarus in September, Statkevich was again delivered to the same colony. She said the transfer was carried out with a bag over his head and plastic restraints on his hands. Adamovich said that over the past several months she had travelled to the colony three times and sent formal appeals, but received no responses.
“It turns out that all this time he was in the same colony in Hlybokaye from which he was taken in September,” she said. “Mikalai said that when he was taken out of the colony, he was transported with a bag over his head, and on the way back, from the border to the colony, it was the same: a bag over his head and restraints on his hands. I wrote to the colony. I went there three times over these months. And no one told me anything, did not give a single answer to my appeals. But he was there all this time. Mikalai suffered a cerebral infarction back on January 21, and that same evening he was taken to Minsk. (In the background at that moment Mikalai’s voice can be heard. It is indistinct, but Maryna understands. — Author’s note.) Mikalai says that the doctors really did everything possible to save his life: three weeks in intensive care, feeding through a tube.”
According to his wife, after his release he was met at home by her and their pets — dogs and cats.
“Our old cats recognized their owner even after five years,” she said.
Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced in 2021 in the so-called Tsikhanouski case to 14 years in prison. He was accused of organizing mass riots. In the colony he spent a long time in incommunicado detention. During his imprisonment he had only one short visit with his wife — in June 2022.
Mikalai Statkevich was among 52 political prisoners who were released on September 11, 2025. All of them were taken to Lithuania. However, Statkevich refused to leave, jumped out of the bus and remained in Belarus. He spent several hours between two border checkpoints and was later taken away by masked men.
Later, media outlets received information that Statkevich was again being held in prison in Hlybokaye, but this was not officially confirmed. Adamovich filed a report with the police about his disappearance.
Yesterday, his wife reported that he had been released. Statkevich is currently at home in Minsk. On January 21 he suffered a stroke and has impaired speech.
Today, press secretary to Alyaksandr Lukashenka Natallia Eismant said that he had approved a request from Statkevich’s relatives to release him after his illness.