Belarusian journalist Protasevich accused of being Lukashenko regime agent
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Former editor of biggest Belarusian Telegram news channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich is strongly suspected of being a security service agent, editor-in-chief of the independent Belarusian news site Charter 97, Natalya Radina, told Radio NV on June 14.
"We have a lot of questions about him,” Radina said.
“In fact, there are a lot of questions about how he appeared in the Belarusian opposition, how he went to Poland, and how he headed NEXTA Telegram channel. We don't have time on the air to go through all deetails, but the Nasha Niva newspaper published a very good investigation into who Roman Protasevich is. And there are serious suspicions that he is an agent of the special services. That's all. That explains his behaviour in Belarus.”
Protasevich was abducted from a Ryanair plane that was hijacked by the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko while it was en route from Greece to Lithuania in May 2021.
The passenger jet was forced landing in Minsk by a Belarusian military aircraft. Later, Protasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison for “organizing mass riots, inciting enmity, creating an extremist formation, conspiring to seize power, and publicly insulting (Belarusian) dictator Alexander Lukashenko.”
However, he was pardoned by the dictator on May 22, the Belarusian news agency BelTA reported.
His colleagues — Nexta founder Stepan Putilo and former channel editor Yan Rudyk — were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively.
The West considers that the Ryanair flight was hijacked by the Lukashenko regime in order to detain an opposition representative.
Protasevich's girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who was taken out of the flight alongside him, was sentenced to six years in prison for "inciting social discord" in May 2022. In April 2023, she agreed to be extradited to Russia.
She was also pardoned by Lukashenko on June 7.
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