Statkevich's wife: "Mikalai in jail again"

According to official information provided by the court of Minsk’s Maskoŭski District Court, opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich has been sentenced to 5 days of administrative detention. The politician was penalized for participating in an unauthorized protest on March 30. The court ruling was issued on May 15 and entered into force on May 23. However, the sentence was a complete surprise for Statkevich, who knew nothing about the charges and the court's decision.

The politician’s wife, Maryna Adamovich, says that on March 30 Statkevich came to the city’s detention center to meet his associates who were serving short terms after Freedom Day. He was holding a white-red-white flag, which, most likely, was the reason why the police regarded the meeting as an unauthorized assembly.

“We can only guess what will happen after these five days. Perhaps Mikalai will be released, will walk free for a few days, and before September 8 he will be again been detained for 15 days, to which he was sentenced for the July 3 protest. But maybe he would not be let out at all,” says Statkevich’s wife.

Maryna Adamovich herself, who also came under persecution, is now appealing the actions of the court of the Saviecki district of Minsk, which failed to properly inform her about the administrative charges she faced.

“For the last six months, there have been three social protests which ended with heavy fines for me, which have already by far exceeded my income. That is, in the opinion of our government, we should pay generously for our desire to live in a democratic and legitimate state. For example, I was convicted for March 25, while they did not issue a report of an administrative offense, did not notify me of the trial, and did not even send me the ruling. But the court officers regularly carry out their work. Because during those trials there were numerous violations, and I am now actively appealing them. But, unfortunately, the same trend persists – by using severe methods and, above all, the heavy fines, the authorities are trying to prevent the social protests in the fall. And the fact that people are ready to protest, I think, is evident,” says Adamovich.

Maryna Adamovich believes that the authorities can feel a new maturation of social activity, and therefore will continue to apply the old means.

“This year, together with the activation of the spring social protests, the authorities activated their efforts to suppress them. And they quench them with their usual ways, waging, by and large, a war against their own people, and, in my opinion, actually robbing active people. This saber-rattling is meant to prevent a new wave of civic activism, which may occur in the fall. But the state has no money, so the authorities have to stand on the two banks of one river. But will they be able to remain standing? I do not know.”

On August 26, Mikalai Statkevich was arrested and taken to the detention center of Minsk city executive committee’s police department. It took his wife Maryna Adamovich a few days to find out the reasons for the politician’s arrest.