Mikalai Statkeivch: I'm not going to apply for clemency

The political prisoner's wife says he won't apply for clemency.

Maryna Adamovich, the wife of former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, received a letter from her husband on January 22. He writes if he would apply for a pardon to be released. Maryna Adamovich gives Radio Svaboda extracts from the letter, which was sent on January 16.

“Colleagues from the Social Democratic Party of Germany are in the government now. They will use quiet diplomacy to release me, like it happened to Khodorkovsky. I am against secret diplomacy where other means are needed. I am not Khodorkovsky. He is a businessman, I am a presidential candidate. I won't apply for clemency. I called people to the streets, tens of thousands came despite fear. I cannot betray them,” he wrote.

Maryna Adamovich notes Lukashenka's remark about Mikalai Statkevich, who said Statkevich was a “political corpse” means the ruler regards Mikalai a political opponent. “Otherwise they wouldn't hold him in prison,” Maryna Adamovich says.

Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced to 6 years in prison allegedly for organising disorders on December 19, 2010. He is in prison in Mahilou.