Mikalai Statkevich Arrested

Supporters of the BNC leader believe that Statkevich was arrested in order to disrupt his speech at Euronest in Kiev.

Mikalai Statkevich, a leader of the Belarusian National Congress, was detained in Minsk today.

Politician’s wife Maryna Adamovich wrote about it on Facebook.

"A while ago, Mikalai was arrested in keeping with the best traditions of a cheap play," – the BNC leader’s wife wrote.

On October 31, Mikalai Statkevich is supposed to participate in the meeting of the working group on Belarus at Euronest.

One of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress Yauhen Afnahel, a coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign, told Charter97.org about the details of the politician’s detention.

"They detained Mikalai Statkevich 20 minutes ago. He was on his way back from a meeting with his associates. The car with Statkevich and his wife Maryna Adamovich was stopped by traffic police officers near the Karona hypermarket at the crossroads of Kalvaryiskaya and Tsimirazeu streets. A blue minibus, which is already familiar to a lot of activists, drove up immediately. Riot policemen rushed out of it and detained Statkevich. We still don’t know where he was taken.

This afternoon, we met with Mikalai Statkevich to discuss the strategy of the BNC’s further actions. We were talking that early parliamentary and presidential elections in Belarus under international control should remain our main demand. Statkevich planned to voice that position at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Eastern Partnership, which opens in Kiev today. He was going to fly to the Ukrainian capital in the morning. I am sure that he was detained right then in order not to allow his participation in the session.

The Belarusian National Congress consistently criticizes the authorities and consistently demands fair elections. The regime is afraid of this and therefore did everything possible to prevent Statkevich, the most famous and authoritative of the Belarusian politicians invited to Kiev, from participating in the major international forum. I hope that the Euronest session participants will make adequate conclusions," – Yauhen Afnahel said.

Euronest is an interparliamentary assembly created to bring together the member states of the EU's Eastern Partnership program.

The goal of the program is the rapprochement of the EU with Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus without their acceptance into the EU.