Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko hinted that an opposition leader is back in prison and may “die soon” after refusing to move to Lithuania during a major prisoner release.
Mikola Statkevich—who challenged Lukashenko in the 2010 presidential election—was supposed to cross into Lithuania with other freed political prisoners this month. Instead, he left the bus at the border and went back to Belarus, where Lukashenko has long crushed free media and political opposition.
Statkevich has not been seen since and his wife says she has no contact with him. Lukashenko confirmed he is back in Belarus, adding that Lithuania had warned he would face prison if he returned.
Lukashenko said Belarus had to take Statkevich back because he was a citizen, adding the 69-year-old dissident is weak and “may die soon, even in prison.”
Belarus’s prisons are secretive, with political inmates often cut off from families.
