Lukashenka doesn't plan to release Statkevich

The dictator says Mikalai Statkevich “wants to be a prisoner”, so he remains behind bars.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka said it to Bloomberg in an interview, a televised version of which was shown on Belarus 1 TV, tut.by reports.

Answering the question if it was necessary to jail five presidential candidates after the 2010 elections and continue to hold one of them (Mikalai Statkevich) in prison, Lukashenka said:

“It's absolutely unnecessary. It even harms me. But they were jailed not because they were presidential candidates. You should agree that they were not competitors for me. They violated law, grossly violated law. It was related to the destabilisation of the situation in the country.

Four of them didn't want to be in jail. They are not in jail. One of them, who is still in jail, wants to be a prisoner. He thinks 'I will be a prisoner, and it will make me a hero in Belarus'. Well, it's not forbidden to think so. Think what you like.”

Former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment for organising mass disorders on the day of the presidential elections on 19 December 2010. The politician didn't admit his guilt and refused to apply for a pardon.

Mikalai Statkevich was transferred to a correctional facility in Shklou at the beginning of 2015 after three years in a closed prison in Mahilou.