Mikalai Statkevich’s Wife Fears For Her Husband’s Life

The authorities refuse to provide information on the whereabouts of the BNC leader.

The wife of the leader of the Belarusian protests has stated the following in an interview for the Charter97.org:

- Since Thursday, I have had no information about my husband Mikalai Statkevich. I had a hope that he managed to escape from the special services and would get to the action on March 25, for which he took responsibility, at any cost. But when no one saw him on March 25 and he was not on the detainees' lists, I began to search for him.

Since last night I visited all the places known to me where they can keep the arrested people: the KGB prison, the special detention center and the remand prison in Akrestsin Street, and the remand prison of the Interior Ministry. They told me in the special detention center in Akrestin street and in the remand prison in Valadarski street that there was no Mikalai Statkevich in the list of detainees. In the KGB prison they refused to provide information, which is very similar to the experience of 2010 - a persistent sense of deja vu.

At the same time, the Belarusian Television did not disdain to once again spread a libelous report, sewn with white threads, that Statkevich’s "driver" had been detained with certain bottles.

And now I do not know what to think. In the "best" case, Mikalai remains in the "claws" of the KGB as in 2010, and all this bacchanalia of wild arrests and wild accusations against democratic activists is organized with the sole purpose of making my husband the leader of these mythical "terrorists".

In the meantime, in fact, for three days I have had no information about the whereabouts, and the state of Mikalai! I know that numerous attempts to assassinate my husband were made in completely different ways, including trying to poison him. Lukashenka publicly announced on the state television that Mikalai should be captured.

I am warning the force structures against using physical force and brutal methods with regard to my husband and all the other detained innocent people!