Family and friends had to wait more than a day before they received the first official information about the whereabouts of Roman Protasevich. According to the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior, he is in the “No. 1 Detention Centre” in Minsk. It confirmed the arrest of the blogger and activist.
“Complaints about his state of health” did not exist from him, the ministry reported on its Telegram channel.
Earlier, Protasevich’s mother Natalya had received information from “people from medical circles” that her son was going to be unwell. She had made this information public and asked for more information about her child’s condition.
The ministry has now responded to this. Protasevich has been suffering from heart problems since childhood, his mother told the MIRROR.
In the evening, a video was broadcast on a Telegram channel close to the regime in which Protasevich could be seen. In it, he said, among other things, that he’s fine and that he had no health problems. The behaviour of the officers was at best correct and in compliance with the law, he said. He cooperated with the investigators. It is not known in which context the video was recorded and from which source it was distributed on the Internet. Protasevich seems nervous, the text is given.
The video ends with Protasevich making a confession about the” mass riots ” in Minsk. This is what the Belarusian regime calls the protests against the rigged presidential elections in 2020. The opposition is now facing up to 15 years in prison for this alleged crime.
The regime repeatedly presents its opponents in front of the camera; Tikhanovskaya also had to record a message for the government before it was forced out of the country by the authorities in August 2020 after the presidential election.
Ryanair flight forced to land by fighter jet
The authorities of the authoritarian republic had brought a Ryanair plane on its way from Greece to Lithuania with the help of a fighter jet to land in Minsk on Sunday-allegedly because of a bomb threat. According to EU data, 171 people were on board. Most of the remaining passengers continued to Vilnius after hours of delay. Protasevich, who was also on board, was arrested with his girlfriend.
The European Union is currently discussing a response to the forced landing at a summit. Among other things, a flight stop for the Belarusian airline is being considered, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) before the start. The head of the Council, Charles Michel, called Belarus ‘actions an ” international scandal”.
Merkel demanded the immediate release of the blogger and his partner. The Chancellor spoke of an”unprecedented action by the Belarusian authorities”.
The Belarusian government defended its actions with an alleged threat letter from the Palestinian radical organization Hamas. The e-mail said, among other things, that “a bomb was planted” on board the plane, said Artem Sikorski, head of the aviation department at the Belarusian Ministry of Transport.
