Protasevich called rumors reports about his beating in the pre-trial detention center

EAt a briefing organized by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the ex-editor-in-chief of Nexta said that “he feels fine, no one has touched him with a finger.” He called the information that he was beaten in the pre-trial detention center rumors and asked not to spread them

Protasevich called rumors about his beating in the pre-trial detention center

Roman Protasevich

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The former editor-in-chief of the Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, at a press conference in Minsk on the situation with the emergency landing of the Ryanair plane, called untrue reports that he was beaten in a pre-trial detention center. This is reported by the correspondent of RBC.

Answering the journalist’s question about the traces that were previously noticed on Protasevich’s hands, the young man said that “these are the traces of screeds during the detention”.

According to the ex-editor-in-chief of Nexta, he “heard a lot of fakes about his health”. “I feel fine, I’m fine, I don’t have any complaints, no one has hit me, no one has touched me. I just want to make a request not to spread further rumors, ” he said.

The real hostages of the current situation, Protasevich said, were his girlfriend, a Russian citizen, Sofia Sapega, who was removed from a Ryanair flight with him, and his parents, who are now in Poland “in the conditions of an information vacuum”. “Think about how your mothers would react if you were in the same places as me, and you were talking about your son being beaten up?& raquo; & mdash; he added.

According to Protasevich, the pre-trial detention center is certainly not an apartment in Vilnius,but everything is fine with it. “I understand why I am under investigation, I understand what crimes I will have to answer for,” he claims.

The organization of the next press conference in Minsk dedicated to the emergency landing of the Ryanair airliner did not begin until Friday, when several Russian journalists, including a correspondent of RBC, received an invitation to take part in it. The announced participants were representatives of the Belarusian Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transport, the Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Defense and the Border Committee. As well as “other relevant speakers”, the announcement said.

Roman Protasevich’s participation in it was kept in strict secrecy-almost until the moment when he personally appeared in the hall. A minute earlier, the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Anatoly Glaz, the moderator of the press conference, placed a sign with his name in front of the only unsigned chair. At the last moment, the composition of the press conference participants changed, he said.

The hall where the press conference was held, the National Press Center, is a small room with six rows of chairs. The first two rows were filled with diplomats, including from the European Union countries-the seats for them were signed-there was also a girl with a British flag on her mask. Most of them quickly left the hall after Protasevich appeared in it. Demonstratively, the BBC film crew also left the hall. The correspondent of the publication Johnfisher wrote on Twitter that he was not going to participate in such a press conference, in which Protasevich was clearly forced to participate.

“Do you not believe that I am sincere? If you don’t believe me, just say so, ” Protasevich said to the audience. There was silence for a few seconds after his question. BelaPAN journalist Tatyana Korovenkova got up from her seat and loudly stated that she did not believe that Protasevich was making statements without pressure. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through in the last few weeks. I sincerely sympathize with you. Many people in Belarus and many of your colleagues also sincerely sympathize with you. To everything that you hold on to and survive it, ” she said.

Three criminal cases have been opened against the former editor-in-chief of Nexta in Belarus, related to mass riots during the protests after the presidential election. On June 3, in an interview with the state TV channel ONT, Protasevich said that he had pleaded guilty to charges of organizing mass actions.

At the same time, Protasevich’s parents are convinced that this interview was given under pressure. “Everything that Roman says, he does not say himself,” his father Dmitry declared. He believes that his son was intimidated, tortured, psychologically abused, and could have been blackmailed with threats to his life. Nexta founder Stepan Putilo, in turn, believes that Protasevich’s confessions are the result of unbearable torture, coupled with personal experiences and well-inspired beliefs about total betrayal on the part of his former entourage.

European politicians have also claimed that Protasevich was beaten in jail. “You can see the traces of the beating, you can see that the way he speaks signals that he is being subjected to actions contrary to human rights,” said Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski, commenting on the footage of the Belarus 1 TV channel, where Protasevich reported no health problems.

On the twenty-third of May, Protasevich and Sapega flew by Ryanair from Athens to Vilnius, but the plane had to land at the Minsk airport. The Belarusian authorities said that the plane landed because of the data about the bomb on board. Ryanair told RBC that the crew received information about the mining from Belarusian dispatchers, who instructed them to land the plane in Minsk. No dangerous items were found on board, but Belarusian security forces detained Protasevich and Sapieha.

Источник rbc.ru

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