MINSK
Roman Protasevich, the independent Belarusian blogger detained after authorities diverted the aircraft on which he was travelling appeared at a news conference in Minsk, in a scenario denounced by journalists in attendance and sure to anger Western governments considering fresh sanctions on the ex-Soviet state.
Some journalists walked out of the news conference staged by Belarus’s Foreign Ministry and prominent opponents of veteran President Alexander Lukashenko, many living in exile, said it was clear Protasevich was made to appear under duress.
Protasevich had previously appeared in video statements and in a tearful interview on state television – in a darkened room with a spotlight shining on him — acknowledging he was guilty of charges of inciting mass disorder.
But this was his first appearance in public since he and his Russian girlfriend were detained on 23rd May when Belarusian authorities diverted to Minsk their scheduled aircraft bound for Lithuania. His girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, also faces charges.
BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher said the event was organised in a clumsy fashion – Protasevich was announced as a participant minutes before he appeared seated alongside uniformed officers – and he walked out in protest.
“With Mr Protasevich having been brought from detention to the briefing, and almost certainly having no say in the matter, we decided to leave,” Fisher said in his dispatch. “Shortly afterwards, several of the foreign diplomats also followed suit.”
The diversion of the aircraft – escorted in to Minsk by a MiG-29 fighter jet, has prompted a torrent of denunciations in the West – less than a year after brutal police tactics put an end to mass protests against what the opposition says was blatant vote-rigging to secure a sixth term for Lukashenko. He has been accused of a long list of human rights violations during 27 years in power.
The European Union has barred Belarusian aircraft and planes from Western countries are steering clear of the country’s airspace. EU countries are considering further economic sanctions, with the country’s potash fertiliser exports, accounting for 20 percent of the world supply, a likely target.
Authorities said they diverted the plane after receiving a threat there was a bomb aboard. Lukashenko said he acted to save his people from “bloody rebellion” and has taken steps to move closer to his sole ally, Russia, while remaining wary of Moscow’s plan to move forward on creation of a merged “union state” which could amount to Belarus being absorbed.
Belarus’s state-run BelTA news agency quoted Protasevich, former editor of one of the country’s most influential opposition media outlets, as telling journalists that he was being treated well in detention.
“It would seem to me that the place where I am now is the safest place for me. I am well aware that many people consider me a traitor,” the agency quoted him as saying. “Let me stress that I have betrayed no one. I will say honestly that if I were allowed to go free now, I would certainly seek official protection.”
Foreign observers were outraged.
“The staged news conference in Minsk with representatives of the repressive authorities and kidnapped journalist Roman Protasevich brings to mind the worst examples of the Stalinist past,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said on Twitter. “There is no place in the 21st century for forced confessions or the seizing of hostages.”