ROMAN PROTASEVICH AND HIS GIRLFRIEND REMAIN IN THE CUSTODY OF THE BELARUSIAN GOVERNMENT
The Belarusian journalist, whose plane heading for Lithuania was diverted by the Belarusian government to land in Minsk, on a false alert of a bomb scare on board, was arrest about almost a week ago, remains in the Belarusian police custody.
A dramatic series of events have been playing out in recent weeks. A Ryanair passenger jets heading for Lithuania was diverted and firced to land in Minsk. This has prompted an international outcry after it was revealed that the bomb threat that grounded the plan was simply a ruse to arrest journalist Roman Protasevich.
Roman Protasevich, is a 26-year-old journalist who was arrested by Belarusian authorities after grounding his Lithuanian-bound flight. His dramatic arrest has drawn international interest this week.
Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sophia Sapega, were aboard flight FR4978 from Athens to Lithuania before pilots were alerted of a bogus security threat and ordered to land in Minsk.
Belarusian state media reported that it was President Alexander Lukashenko who gave an “unequivocal order” to ground the passenger jet in Minsk. Protasevich has been a vocal critic of Lukashenko for a decade.
He had started criticizing the government since he was 16yrs old and his unequivocal stand against the tyrannical rule of the dictator has earned him about 2million followers on his social media news channel.
Protasevich, 26, is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of NEXTA, a news channel based in Poland that spread clips of mass protests against Lukashenko via encrypted messaging app Telegram.
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