A court in Belarus has sentenced blogger Roman Protasevich, who was arrested after a plane was forced to land in Belarus last year, to eight years in a prison camp. In order to arrest the blogger, ruler Alexander Lukashenko intercepted a plane from the air two years ago. Internationally, the blogger was considered a political prisoner.
Protasevich had worked as a freelance journalist in Belarus and fled the country in 2019. He then reported on mass protests against Alexander Lukashenko from Poland, including as editor-in-chief for the Telegram channel Nexta. In November 2020, the authorities in Belarus classified him as a terrorist.
In May 2021 he was on a plane from Athens to Vilnius with his girlfriend. The Belarusian authorities then diverted the Ryanair flight to Minsk and arrested it at the airport. At the time, Belarus said it had forced the plane to land after an anonymous tip about a bomb on board. This bomb threat later turned out to be false. The girlfriend of the Belarusian blogger, the Russian Sofia Sapega, was also arrested at the time. A court had already sentenced her to six years in prison last year.
Doubts about the blogger’s public confession
Protasevich’s arrest caused an international stir. Many governments had criticized Lukashenko at the time. The EU and the US had imposed sanctions. In addition, the United States had accused four Belarusian government officials of air piracy. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, a close confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been known, at least since the suppression of anti-government protests in the summer of 2020, for cracking down on the opposition in his country with extreme severity.
After his arrest, Protasevich appeared several times on Belarusian state television. There he had always distanced himself from his opposition activities. Relatives, for example his parents, assume that these statements were obtained through torture.
The blogger’s first video message was published just a few days after his arrest. The then 26-year-old reported in a 30-second video from the detention center and confessed to having organized mass protests in Minsk. A month later, Belarusian state television broadcast a lengthy interview with the jailed journalist. He stated that he was fine in prison. Protasevich once again tearfully admitted to organizing protests against Alexander Lukashenko. In Belarus, that means up to 15 years in prison.