Polish prosecutors consider former Coordination Council speaker Anzhalika Melnikava, who disappeared a year ago, to be a victim and are investigating the circumstances of her departure from Poland. This was stated on the program “Ranitsa z Belsatam” by Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet Pavel Latushka, who received an official response from the Department for Combating Organized Crime of Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the letter, the prosecutor’s office and Poland’s Internal Security Agency are taking all necessary measures to establish Melnikava’s whereabouts and determine the reasons for her sudden loss of contact with relatives while she was in Poland. The official version of the investigation is that Melnikava was forced to leave Poland, which corresponds to Article 130 of the country’s Criminal Code concerning unlawful deprivation of liberty.
“Anzhalika Melnikava is the injured party in this situation, therefore our actions are aimed at questioning her about what caused her departure from Poland and what actions were carried out against her before she left Polish territory,” Latushka quoted from the letter of the Polish prosecutor’s office.
Latushka also cited several facts supporting the view that Melnikava acted in the interests of the Belarusian democratic forces. According to him, under her leadership the Coordination Council adopted a resolution on the responsibility of Alyaksandr Lukashenka for crimes against humanity, which was sent to all European parliaments of countries that are members of the International Criminal Court.
According to Latushka, that meeting of the Coordination Council took place under difficult circumstances. A day before it, the American side stopped funding, which threatened the holding of public hearings and could have led to their cancellation.
“I remember when she called me practically at night, around midnight, and simply cried because she did not know what to do, because tickets, hotels, rental payments and so on had to be confirmed. But she said: ‘I will pay with my own money.’ And I know for sure that she spent part of her own funds on this meeting. And that meeting adopted a resolution on Lukashenka’s responsibility, including for crimes against humanity, which is now being examined by the International Criminal Court. And this resolution was sent to all European parliaments of the countries that are members of the International Criminal Court,” the politician said.
He also noted that during a plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Melnikava called for the 2020 elections not to be recognized and for the Coordination Council, the United Transitional Cabinet and the Office of Tsikhanouskaya to be recognized. This was later reflected in the final resolution.
“For the first time our delegation was sitting in the political committee, and she asked me: ‘Pavel Pavlovich, should I introduce an amendment here?’ It concerned recognition of the Coordination Council. I said: ‘Anzhalika, honestly, I do not know, we are participating for the first time: can we raise our hand and ask for the floor now?’ She did not raise her hand — that was my fault. She ran to deputies who had long been members of PACE, and later she introduced the amendment after collecting signatures. And the amendment passed,” Latushka recalled.
Melnikava also headed the Cyberpartisans Foundation and was part of the National Anti-Crisis Management, which dealt with sanctions against Lukashenka’s regime.
Latushka also recalled that she had undergone vetting by organizations such as BELPOL and the Cyberpartisans, and since she was a Polish citizen she was also checked by Poland’s Internal Security Agency, the Interior Ministry and the Border Guard.
At the same time, he admitted that Melnikava might have become a victim of recruitment. According to him, there was information that she had been pressured to carry out actions against members of the National Anti-Crisis Management team, and that her refusal could have led to her disappearance.
“We also had information that she was being forced to carry out criminal actions, so to speak, against members of the team of the National Anti-Crisis Management. And they began to pressure her. And this could have become the reason for her disappearance,” the politician said, noting that Melnikava refused to carry out such a “proposal” from special services.
He emphasized that Melnikava’s whereabouts remain unknown. According to his information, her children are currently in Belarus, but she is not with them.
“I can say unofficially that I received information that the children are now on the territory of Belarus. Where she is — the location has not been determined, and I also know unofficially that she is not with the children,” he said.
Anzhalika Melnikava disappeared on February 26, 2025. Officially she flew to London, but in reality her route passed through Sri Lanka to Dubai, where the trail was finally lost. Later documents of the Coordination Council were downloaded from her account, and about $150,000 disappeared from the account of the Belarus Liberty Foundation.
Investigators also report possible connections between Melnikava and a Belarusian KGB officer, Aliaksei Labieyeu. As reported, in 2022 she failed an initial polygraph test conducted by the BYPOL initiative, but after a second test she was accepted.
A reward of €10,000 has been announced for information about Melnikava’s whereabouts.
