Protesters in Poland demand the release of the Belarusian opponent arrested after the diversion of an airliner. – AFP
Belarusian activist Roman Protassevich, arrested in Minsk after the diversion of an airliner by the country’s authorities, said Monday to collaborate with investigators, in a video broadcast on public television and denounced by the opposition.
The regime’s propaganda channels posted a video of arrested Raman Pratasevich, saying that he is treated lawfully in the Minsk Detention Center №1. This is how Raman looks under physical and moral pressure. I demand the immediate release of Raman and all political prisoners. pic.twitter.com/zdolsbp6m5
– Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (@Tsihanouskaya) May 24, 2021
“The staff behave with me in a completely adequate way and by respecting the law, I continue to collaborate with the investigators and made confessions concerning the organization of massive disturbances”, affirmed Roman Protassevich in this video in which he speaks seated at a table, facing the camera.
Belarusian authorities accustomed to videos like this
He looks tired, waving his crossed hands as a pack of cigarettes and a pack of matches sit on the table. In the undated recording, the 26-year-old activist claims to be in Detention Center No. 1, located in the center of Minsk, the Belarusian capital. But the room where he is filmed gives no indication as to his whereabouts.
Opposition media claimed Roman Protassevich had marks on his face, which they said suggested possible ill-treatment. “This is what Roman looks like under physical and moral pressure”, wrote on Twitter the figure of the opposition in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, denouncing a video broadcast by “the propaganda channels of the regime”.
In the past, Belarusian authorities have been accused of disseminating confessions of detainees obtained under duress. Last August, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya herself called in a video broadcast by state media not to demonstrate, at a time when Belarus was shaken by a historic protest movement against the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko. An ally of the opponent, Maria Kolesnikova, had denounced a recording made “under the pressure of the security forces”.