What happened to jailed Belarus dissident Raman Pratasevich?
Key takeaways
- In 2021, Belarus diverted a Ryanair plane to seize opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich.
- Nexta, which operated from Poland, was the most important news source on the anti-government protests that erupted in August 2020 after the rigged Belarus presidential election.
- Afterwards, Pratasevich and Sapega stayed on in Greece for a vacation.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
In 2021, Belarus diverted a Ryanair plane to seize opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich. What has happened to him since, and why is he now seemingly supporting the Belarusian regime?
https://p.dw.com/p/5E8TVRaman Pratasevich appeared at a press conference held by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry in June 2021Image: AFP/Getty Images Advertisement Alexander Lukashenko's regime went to great lengths to arrest Raman Pratasevich. On May 23, 2021, Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair plane on its way from Athens to Vilnius, in Lithuania, to land in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, sparking global outrage.
As soon as the plane touched down, Pratasevich, the former editor-in-chief of Nexta, a Belarusian media networkthat was largely distributed via the Telegram platform and had been classified as "extremist" by the Belarusian regime, was escorted off and arrested along with his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.