Freed Belarusian opposition politician who refused deportation is back in prison, report says

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarusian opposition politician Mikola Statkevich, who refused to be deported to neighbouring Lithuania after being released from prison last week, has been returned to a penal colony, independent news outlet Nasha Niva reported on Monday.

“Statkevich has been found in the Hlybokaye prison colony,” exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya posted on X, citing the Nasha Niva report which was based on an unidentified source.

“We urge the international community to demand his freedom,” she said.

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

The exiled opposition says freed prisoners should have the right to remain in Belarus rather than be forced to leave the country. Some of those released last week said they would rather have stayed.

The U.S. lifted sanctions on the Belarusian state airline in return for the prisoner release and U.S. envoy John Coale said Washington wants to reopen its embassy in Minsk, indicating a possible thaw in relations between the two countries.

Western powers including the U.S., EU and UK have imposed a slew of sanctions on Belarus in recent years over its human rights record and support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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”.

Nasha Niva said he had been in solitary confinement in the Hlybokaye prison for the past two years and seven months, with no contact with the outside world.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Robert Harvey; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)