Belarus frees opposition politician after stroke in prison, exiled leader says

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Belarusian ‌opposition ​politician ​Mikola Statkevich, who refused deportation to Lithuania after his 2025 release ‌and was imprisoned again, has been ⁠freed after he suffered a stroke while ‌in custody, exiled opposition ‌leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Thursday.

Statkevich was one of 52 prisoners freed ​in Belarus in September 2025 after an appeal from U.S. President Donald ⁠Trump, including journalists and political opponents of President Alexander ​Lukashenko. All were brought to the Lithuanian border, but Statkevich was ​the only one who ‌refused to cross.

"I am relieved that he is free and ⁠able to hug his wife, who waited for him for so long," Tsikhanouskaya wrote ⁠on X, posting a picture of Statkevich and ​his wife smiling. She said that he could barely speak following the stroke.

Statkevich, 69, ran ‌unsuccessfully against Lukashenko in a presidential election in 2010. He ‌was arrested in May 2020 and ⁠sentenced in 2021 to ‌14 years ​in a maximum-security prison for "organising riots".

(Reporting by Maxim RodionovEditing by Tomasz ‌Janowski)

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