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Belarus has moved to blogger Roman Protasevich and his friend Sofia Sapega to be detained a month after President Alexander Lukashenko’s administration angered other countries when it took over forcing them to flee Ryanair.
The office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’s opposition leader, confirmed on Friday that they would all be remanded in custody, but said the two were still at large. “The Captives”.
“We are in contact with Roman parents – they are not told anything about their son, they are not allowed to talk to him,” Tsikhanouskaya’s office said in a statement.
Franak Viacorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s aides, says Belarus is trying to develop prevention strategies new punishments has been announced by the EU, US, UK and Canada this week. The ban affects 86 people and organizations as well as the country’s oil and gas companies, which are the main source of income.
“We hope that under the ban the government will try to exchange prison groups to remove sanctions. They are playing the same game before the 2006 and 2010 elections, taking turns to benefit,” he told the Financial Times.
“[The EU should] do not believe one word Lukashenko says. Everyone is to be released unjustly. ”
EU leaders this week demanded the “immediate release of all political and illegal prisoners” in Belarus, including Protasevich and Sapega.
One EU ambassador said donations from Minsk were rejected by foreign ministers this week because they did not see it as a big deal. “The move to Lukashenko’s administration was ignored,” he said. “The only thing the EU can think of in negotiating is the release of all 500 political prisoners and fair elections.”
Protasevich’s imprisonment is part of Belarus’s brutal war effort since protests against Lukashenko’s impressive victory last year. About 35,000 Belarusians have been arrested, several of whom are said to have been tortured in prison.
As a former editor of Nexta, a well-known protagonist in the message program, Protasevich is accused of plotting riots, and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Sapega has been charged with felony criminal mischief.
Belarus has portrayed a blogger who was an opponent, clearly under pressure, in a series of interviews and conferences in which he praised Lukashenko. On Friday, state-run media released what it said was a video of Protasevich and Sapega walking around Minsk.
Sapega attorney Anton Gashinsky told Russian reporters that he was allowed to meet his parents for lunch at a restaurant in Minsk on Thursday, but was taken away by security and not allowed to use the phone or the internet.
Gashinsky added that Sapega, a Russian citizen, should be released Lukashenko’s meeting by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of the Ryanair incident, and described their arrests as “the best time to help find a better solution to his immediate situation”, according to Interfax.
The Kremlin says it “continues to defend [Sapega’s] legitimate requirements ”.
An unexpected exit from the prison came a day after the EU imposed sanctions on Belarus over the flight of a plane, which Ryanair called “state-aided theft”.
A Western diplomat said the move to Protasevich and Sapega’s detention at home appeared to be part of an attempt to start talks with whites.
“It shows that there is a possibility of openness. It could be about Russia, not the West, if Russia has told Belarus that it will face its consequences. [of the western sanctions] alone, ”said the ambassador. “But doing this too late is unwise because when given the sanctions, it would be difficult to rectify them – if the intention was this.”
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years, is said to have flown a plane to accompany Athens-Vilnius Ryanair in response to a false bomb alert. He also said that in the west there is a “hybrid war” against Belarus.
Additional reports of Michael Peel reports in Brussels
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