British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab called the staged press conference of the founder of the Telegram channel Nexta, who was recognized as extremist in the country, Roman Protasevich, who was arrested in Belarus.
“Belarus continues to mistreat journalist Protasevich, and this is unacceptable. Yesterday’s staged press conference, where Roman was under obvious pressure, demonstrated a new level in the attacks of the Lukashenka regime on human rights. Free Roman and protect freedom of the media”, – Raab wrote in Twitter.
The Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius on May 23 urgently landed at the Minsk airport due to a message about mining, which was not later confirmed. Belarusian human rights activists reported that Protasevich was flying this plane.
While checking documents at the Minsk airport, he was detained. A criminal case was initiated against him under several articles, including the article “organizing mass riots.” He could face up to 15 years in prison. In addition, Protasevich is included by the KGB of Belarus in the list of persons involved in terrorism. Russian citizen Sofia Sapega was detained together with Protasevich. A number of Western countries, including the EU, criticized the incident, they demand the release of Protasevich and Sapega.