Belarusian politician Mikola Statkevich has been returned to prison after being freed in a U.S.-brokered deal but refusing to leave his native country, activists said Tuesday.

The former presidential candidate has been missing since Sept. 11, when a group of political prisoners were pardoned by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Statkevich was placed on a bus that day with other released prisoners and transported to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. However, the 69-year-old refused to leave Belarus in what he described as a “forced deportation,” instead kicking down the door of the bus and waiting for several hours in the no-man’s land between the two countries. He was eventually escorted away by Belarusian police.

The Belaru

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