Brussels, 23 May 2021 - "Today, Belarusian authorities have diverted a passenger plane flying from Athens to Vilnius, using an alleged bomb threat as a pretext to have it intercepted by the Belarusian air force and oblige it to perform an emergency landing in Minsk. The sole purpose of this horrendous manoeuvre was manifestly to arrest one of the passengers of the plane, Mr Raman Pratasevich, co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the opposition Nexta channel. The state-owned news agency Belta admitted that the whole operation had been carried out by Aliaksandr Lukashenka's direct order.
The Nexta channel has been a major source of independent information for Belarusian citizens, and Mr Pratasevich has been vocal about the regime's dire human rights record. He has been living in exile in Poland and Lithuania since 2019 to avoid fabricated criminal charges and may now face death penalty in Belarus. [...]
The Nexta channel has been a major source of independent information for Belarusian citizens, and Mr Pratasevich has been vocal about the regime's dire human rights record. He has been living in exile in Poland and Lithuania since 2019 to avoid fabricated criminal charges and may now face death penalty in Belarus. [...]
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP