A Belarusian opposition activist who was arrested after the Ryanair plane he was on was diverted to Minsk in a “state-sponsored hijacking” has appeared in a new video.
Journalist Roman Protasevich‘s flight from Athens in Greece was rerouted from its scheduled destination of Vilnius, Lithuania, to the Belarusian capital on the orders of President Alexander Lukashenko.
In the footage released by Belarusian authorities, Mr Protasevich, who is being held in a jail, said he was in good health and admitted helping to organise mass protests in Minsk last year.
Wearing a dark top and with his hands tightly clasped in front of him, he added he was in a pre-trial detention facility in the capital.
Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the aircraft as it was crossing through Belarus airspace on Sunday and ordered it to land.
A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane in a brazen show of force by Mr Lukashenko., who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over a quarter of a century.