"No One Has Ever Challenged Lukashenko In This Way."
- 23.09.2025, 10:46
Mikalai Statkevich encouraged the Belarusians.
Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in /var/www/application/classes/BL/SiteEngineAmp.class.php on line 155
Editor-in-chief of Charter97.org Natallia Radzina in interview with well-known journalist Evgeny Kiselev told how opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich encouraged Belarusians by refusing to leave the country after his release on September 11:
- The only political prisoner who refused, who declared his legal right to remain in Belarus, was Mikalai Statkevich. We have talked about him many times in our broadcasts, and this man showed an example of real leadership, courage and selflessness. We still don't know where Mikalai Statkevich is, although it's been more than a week already.
At first there was information that he was returned to the special regime colony in the town of Hluboki, where he has been kept until now. This is one of the most terrible prisons in Belarus. Mikalai Statkevich has been there for more than five years, and most of the time he was in solitary confinement. The conditions in it are monstrous, comparable to the medieval ones, because he was in the basement of the 18th century monastery, where there is terrible dampness, during the rains there was water up to his ankles in his cell. The politician during this time had covid three times, he had a heart attack. We learned all this from other political prisoners who were able to see him before his deportation.
Natallia Radzina notes that the regime is afraid of Mikalai Statkevich, which is why the dictator can't allow the opposition leader to remain at large:
- This is a serious event for Lukashenko, no one has ever challenged him like this. Yes, there are a lot of courageous people in the Belarusian opposition, but what Mikalai Statkevich did shocked Lukashenko himself. Mikalai Statkevich deed encouraged both Belarusians inside the country and emigration.
Rationally it can't be assessed, one should just accept that there are people for whom the values of freedom, democracy, independence are more important than life. Mikalai Viktorovich is one of these people.