Фото: ТГ-канал Николая Статкевич
Politician Mikalai Statkevich said that the Interior Ministry database still lists him as being imprisoned at Penal Colony No. 13 in Hlybokaye. Judging by his account, Statkevich’s status remains unclear.
Yesterday, the politician said that his passport had “been found” at Minsk’s Detention Center No. 1. He tried to restore his pension payments, but this required a release certificate, which Statkevich did not have. As a result, he had to contact Detention Center No. 1, where it turned out that he had not been released but had been taken away from the facility under escort.
“The story with my passport, found at Detention Center No. 1, has continued. It turned out that it is not enough to restore my pension with the passport alone — a release certificate is also required. Especially since, as I was informed, according to the Interior Ministry database I am still considered an inmate of Penal Colony No. 13 in Hlybokaye.
I had to go again to Detention Center No. 1 for a release certificate. But there, the deputy head for operational work told me that they could not issue me such a certificate because they had not ‘released’ me, but that I had been taken from the prison hospital at the detention center by a ‘scheduled escort convoy’. And they returned my passport and belongings because they ‘belong to me’. True, he did not explain at all why my wife Maryna ended up being part of that ‘scheduled escort convoy’. Perhaps she was in charge of it?..
I remember how one official woman on television claimed that I had allegedly been released under a ‘pardon decree’ back in September of last year. But who has seen that decree… And women can sometimes be so changeable.
Now I am completely confused about my current legal status and whereabouts”, Mikalai Statkevich said.
Mikalai 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 who were supposed to be taken to Lithuania.
However, he got off the bus and refused to leave Belarus. Statkevich spent several hours between the two border checkpoints. In the end, he was taken away from the border by masked men. For a long time, it was not known where he was.
Later, reports emerged that he was being held in prison in Hlybokaye. Alyaksandr Lukashenka publicly confirmed that Statkevich had been returned to prison.
On February 19, he was released again. A month earlier, the political prisoner had suffered a stroke and had impaired speech. At the same time, Statkevich was released without documents.
Yesterday, he said that his passport had finally been found.