The Belarusian pro-government telegram channel Zheltye Plums has published a video with opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, who was detained the day before at the Minsk airport.

I am in jail No. 1 in Minsk. I can declare that I have no health problems, including those with the heart and with any other organs. The attitude of the employees towards me is as correct as possible and according to the law. I continue to cooperate with the investigation and give confessions on the fact of organizing mass riots in the city of Minsk, ”Protasevich says on the video.

https://t.me/zheltyeslivy/16675

Earlier Natalya Protasevich, the mother of Roman Protasevich, said that “people from medical circles” had informed her about the hospitalization of her son in one of the Minsk hospitals due to heart problems. Natalya Protasevich’s interlocutors claimed that her son was in critical condition.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus  stated that the data on Protasevich’s hospitalization were unreliable. The ministry added that the detained journalist is in the Minsk SIZO No. 1, no complaints about his health have been received from him.

Roman Protasevich is the editor of the Belarusian opposition telegram channel “Belarus of the Brain”. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of the Nexta telegram channel, which became one of the main sources of information about the protests in Belarus after the presidential elections in August 2020. Both “Belarus of the Brain” and Nexta are recognized as extremist in Belarus.

In Belarus, Protasevich is accused of organizing riots in Minsk and “inciting social enmity” against representatives of the authorities and police. Together with the founder of Nexta, Stepan Putilo Protasevich, the Belarusian KGB is included in the  list of people involved in terrorist activities.

On May 23, Protasevich was detained at the Minsk airport – after the Ryanair flight on which the journalist flew from Athens to Vilnius, landed in Belarus due to the report of a bomb on board (it turned out to be false). Together with Protasevich, his girlfriend, a citizen of Russia Sophia Sapega, was detained. Ryanair passengers spent almost seven hours at the Minsk airport.

(C)MEDUZA 2021