Nikolai Statkevich, one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition and the country’s longest-imprisoned political prisoner, was released on February 19, 2026 and returned home. His wife, Maryna Adamovich, said the politician had suffered a stroke, leaving him with speech difficulties for now, although his overall condition is stable.
“He still speaks poorly for now, but I have no doubt he will recover soon,” Adamovich told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
According to her, Statkevich achieved what he had insisted on: remaining in Belarus rather than being expelled abroad. On September 11, 2025, after five years and three months in prison and two years and seven months in near-total isolation, he and other political prisoners were taken to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. There, Statkevich refused to go to Lithuania, jumped out of the bus, and headed toward Belarus.
Political prisoner Maksim Vinyarsky, who was with him, said Belarusian representatives at the border urged them to enter Lithuania, claiming they could not be admitted to Belarus without documents. Statkevich stayed in the neutral zone and then disappeared. For the next five months, officials did not disclose where he was being held.
Adamovich sought answers through the police, the courts, the Interior Ministry, the border service, and Penal Colony No. 13 in Hlybokaye. The only official reply was a letter from the Interior Ministry dated November 21, 2025, signed by Deputy Minister Hennadz Kazakevich, stating that Statkevich was serving his sentence under the Homyel Regional Court verdict of December 14, 2021. It later emerged that he had remained all that time in the same colony in Hlybokaye.
According to his wife, Statkevich suffered a stroke on January 21 and was transferred to Minsk that same evening. He said doctors fought to save his life: he spent three weeks in intensive care and was fed through a tube.
Statkevich had previously been imprisoned twice for protest activity, in 2004 and 2011. His latest sentence, 14 years in a special-regime colony, followed his detention on May 31, 2020 at an authorized signature-collection rally. In total, across three prison terms, he spent 12 years behind bars.