Journalist Snatched from Flight Faces Belarus 'Death Penalty'

Journalist Snatched from Flight Faces Belarus ‘Death Penalty’
Anna Nemtsova
© Provided by The Daily Beast
REUTERS
A Belarusian MIG-29 military jet forced a Ryanair passenger plane heading from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk airport, where police arrested one of the passengers, a skinny young man. A bomb alert was the official reason for diverting the plane, but nobody in Belarusian opposition had doubts about the real reason behind the special operation: the arrest passenger of 26-year old activist and journalist, Roman Protasevich, the founder of a popular NEXTA Telegram channel read by more than four million people.
Months of extreme pressure on Belarusian journalists intensified last week with raids on the office of a well-known news website Tut.by, violent interrogations, and the arrests of eight other editors and journalists in Minsk. Authorities are accusing Protasevich of organizing the opposition rallies in 2020, as well as of “inciting social enmity.” Protasevich is facing up to 12 years in prison but his colleagues are worried about his life.

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