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Blogger Protasevich ‘practically free’, can work, Belarusian President says

Lukashenko stressed that blogger Protasevich had not shoot or kill anyone in Donbass

MINSK, August 9. /TASS/. Belarusian opposition blogger Roman Protasevich is practically free, he can return to work, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with journalists and community leaders on Monday.

"Look at Protasevich, for example <...>. He is now practically free - can go and work," the Belarusian leader said.

The president noted that earlier he received information that training camps were being created in Ukraine where the Belarusians were receiving training as militants. According to him, Protasevich ended up in a similar place in Ukraine. "He is not a militant, we studied it all <…> It’s important that he didn’t shoot and didn’t kill anyone," Lukashenko added. The Belarusian leader said that the representatives of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) came to Belarus to question the blogger. "They remained satisfied with that conversation," the president noted.

On May 23, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair plane that took off from Athens made an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport after a reported bomb threat. A MiG-29 fighter jet alert crew was scrambled to escort the plane. After the landing, the plane was inspected and no bomb was found on board. The Belarusian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into a false bomb alert. Among the passengers on that flight was Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which Minsk recognized as an extremist entity, who was detained by law enforcement agents once the plane had landed in the Belarusian capital. Russian national Sofia Sapega was also detained together with him. On Sunday evening, the plane left Minsk airport and continued on to Vilnius.

At the end of June, Protasevich was released from a pre-trial detention facility and placed under house arrest.