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Protasevich, who has been living in exile since 2019, told colleagues earlier the same day that he was followed to the airport and a Russian-speaking man was in the check-in line with
him and attempted to photograph his documents.
“He was next in line at the document check and just turned around and walked away,” Protasevich said. “For some reason, he also tried to secretly photograph my documents.”
Other agents boarded the plane with him. As the plane came into land in Minsk Protasevich was clearly shaken.
A passenger sitting next to Protasevich on the plane reported: "They took us out of the plane, the dogs sniffed our luggage. They took that guy (Roman) aside, threw his belongings on the runway. We asked him what’s going on. He told me who he is and added: ‘They'll execute me here’,” Tadeusz Giczan tweeted, the current editor- in-chief of Nexta TV, commenting on information shared by passengers on the plane.
“He was calmer by then, but he was still trembling. An officer was standing next to him all the time, soon the soldiers came and took him away,” the passenger said as cited by Lithuanian delfi.lt.
Stepan Putilo and former editor-in- chief Roman Protasevich founded the Nexta channel on YouTube in 2015 and launched a channel of this name in Telegram, which became one of the
www.bne.eu
venues for Lukashenko’s opponents following the August 9, 2020 presidential polls.
During the height of the protests Nexta briefly became the most read news channel on social media in the world as
Belarus has a 99% conviction rate of cases that go to trial.
"Founder of the Nexta Telegram channel Protasevich has been detained at the Minsk airport," the ministry’s organised crime and corruption department wrote on its Telegram channel.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters were quickly informed of the incident and raised the alarm, contacting Ryanair, EU politicians and broadcasting the news on social media.
“It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of special services to seize the plane in order to detain activist and blogger Raman Protasevich. The regime endangered the safety of passengers
on board and all civil aviation in order to retaliate against the man who was
“He was calmer by then, but he was still trembling. An officer was standing next to him all the time, soon the soldiers came and took him away”
it quickly garnered millions of followers. The state tried repeatedly to shut the channel down, but thanks to Telegram's experience of foiling a similar effort
to block the channel by the Russian authorities it has developed techniques to dodge efforts to silence it and continued to broadcast.
The Nexta Telegram channel was recognised as extremist by Belarus’ Supreme Court on October 20, 2020. Putilo and Protasevich have both been charged with organising riots and instigating social hatred.
In February 2021, Belarus issues an extradition request for Putilo and Protasevich to Poland, where they were living at the time.
Belarus reaction
Belarus’ interior ministry confirmed the detention of Protasevich, who faces 15 years in jail on terrorist charges and the possible death penalty if convicted.
the editor of the largest Belarusian independent telegram channels. He
was recognised as a terrorist only for that, and only for that now in Belarus Raman can be threatened with the death penalty,” Tikhanovskaya said on twitter.
Tikhanovskaya said her headquarters had already reported the incident to Ryanair's office and the International Civil Aviation Organisation, demanding that an investigation be launched and action taken until Belarus was excluded from ICAO.
"As of today, no one who flies over Belarus can be sure of their safety. After all, the regime abuses the rules of air communication in order to capture dissenters,” Tikhanovskaya said.
The head of the People's Anti-Crisis Administration and member of the Coordinating Council Pavel Latushko called the action of forcing down a commercial passenger plane by military