Mikalai Statkevich: They Can Do Nothing, So They Demolish Our House

The politician explained why the authorities have decided to demolish his wife’s house.

The former political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich told the website palitviazni.info, that the authorities notified him on their intention to demolish the house in which he lives.

“As is well known, I don’t pay the numerous fines given to me. I don’t pay them as a matter of principle. Probably, the authorities have decided to demolish the house I live in to take revenge on me,” – the politician says.

“This old house with a garden belongs to my wife, – Mikalai Statkevich says. – She has grown up in this house, and now we live in it together. Though it’s a fashion of today to demolish old houses, my wife received a letter last summer, right before my release, saying that the houses in this inner suburb were not subject to demolishing as the inner suburb had some kind of historical value. However, when I started to live in this house, I didn’t believe that this happiness would last long. And so it happened. I hold an action “For Fair Elections” on September 12, and later we found out that the decision to demolish our house was made on September 13 “in order to meet social needs”. Our neighbors started to phone the officials, but it turned out that they didn’t know anything. Therefore, it is possible that this decision was made in high offices.”

The politician believes that the coincidence is not accidental, and the decision to demolish the house is directly related to his political activity and the rejection to pay the fines.

“They have already tried all possible means to make me pay the fines, – the former political prisoner says. – They withhold half of my pension, they have arrested my cellphone and have banned me from driving a car…Maybe they would want to place me behind the bars, but they can’t as they need to show the alleged liberalization to the West. Moreover, they know that even an arrest will make no influence on me; they haven’t managed to break me yet and will not break me in the future. So they have decided to hit me on some other side – to move me from a private house to, probably, one-room apartment. This means additional expenses, worries and a strong psychological blow for my wife, because she has lived her entire life in this house. In short, they try to annoy me in all possible ways. But after all that I went through, this doesn’t scare me.”

Mikalai Statkevich adds that it is impossible to calculate how many fines he was given since he was released, but he names the estimated amount:

“It is difficult to name exact figures, as they used to send notifications on the courts on my mobile phone before, but now the phone is arrested. That is why I don’t even know how many of them there was. But from time to time some people with folders come here and wander around the house, as they cannot get into it. Today, the neighbors said that these people were trying to get into the house once again, but the first thing I did when I moved in here was renovation of the entire fence. However, according to my general estimate, the total sum of the fines I have received amounts to 6 thousand dollars already.”