Alyaksandr Lukashenka, commenting on the release of political prisoners, spoke about Mikalai Statkevich.
Lukashenka claimed that in September 2025 Statkevich himself chose to return to prison.
“He sat there on the neutral strip for a while and then thought: I do not want to go to this ‘good kingdom,’ better to go to prison,” Lukashenka said.
It should be recalled that when a group of released political prisoners was being deported from Belarus to Lithuania, Statkevich managed to leave the bus in the neutral zone. A few hours later, he was taken away by security forces. Until February, his whereabouts were unknown. On February 19, he was released home after suffering a stroke. He has no documents, and his legal status remains undefined.
Lukashenka repeated the version of events ранее озвученная by his press secretary Natallia Eismant. After Statkevich suffered a stroke, Lukashenka allegedly ordered that he be transferred to a hospital. He also said that he received “numerous appeals” from Statkevich’s wife and relatives asking for his release.
“He was not eating, he could not speak, his functions were impaired. His wife was abroad. I said: let her come. She came, and then the relatives and she began to demand: release him, we will take care of him at home. We released him, and now she is apparently caring for him,” Lukashenka said.
Statkevich, however, believes that his stroke was deliberately provoked. After he was returned to the colony, he was no longer provided with medical parcels containing necessary medication. Instead of the anti-clotting drug prescribed after COVID, he was given aspirin.
Statkevich was sentenced in 2021 in the so-called “Tsikhanouski case” to 14 years in prison. In September 2025, he was among 52 political prisoners scheduled to be deported to Lithuania, but refused to leave Belarus and ran out of the bus.
