Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “It’s been the second day since the Ryanair plane was hijacked. Blogger and activist Raman Pratasevich is detained, we don’t know where he is or in what condition. At this very moment, Raman is likely to be tortured by intelligence agents.
Raman’s girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, was detained with him. Sofia is 23 years old and was on the same flight as Raman. Relatives say that Sofia was taken to Akrestina. Sofia is a Russian citizen and human rights activists report that the Russian consul refused to assist in her case.
It’s scary to imagine what Raman and Sofia went through yesterday and are going through right now. Passengers of the plane, who were able to fly to Vilnius, told that when the plane was turned on Minsk, Raman started to shake, and before detention he said: "I face death penalty here".
Raman is 26 years old – this is how long the regime has been in Belarus. Just for the sake of Raman’s detention, Lukashenka personally gave the order with military aircraft to seize the plane, on which were citizens of European countries. Yesterday’s events and the EU’s reaction to them have shown that everyone now understands that it is not just Belarusians who are in danger. An act of State terrorism has been committed – and now any passenger of a civil ship flying over Belarus will be threatened. After all, the regime has turned our country into North Korea at the heart of Europe.
We are in touch with Roman's parents for the second day. They think he’s a hero and are ready to fight for their son’s freedom. I’m also in touch with Pavel Latushka so that we have a unified response. My team asked the Greek government for information about what was going on at Athens Airport, as Ryanair management said that there might have been intelligence personnel on the plane. Besides, Raman himself told me before he landed that he was being followed.
We are in contact with the Ministers of Ireland and Poland, the Government of Lithuania. I have a call with the Biden administration this evening. We have just made a call with the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, to discuss the way forward.
We insist on the reaction of the international community: the imposition of new sanctions, the exclusion of Belarus from the International Civil Aviation Organization and the launching of an investigation to hold all those responsible accountable. We also call for the suspension of Belarus’s membership in organizations such as Interpol, since the regime is using its participation in them for political purposes.
We will not stop at half measures. Raman Pratasevich, Sofia Sapega and all political prisoners in Belarus must be released. But it is important to remember that only the new free elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus will comprehensively halt the political and humanitarian crisis in Belarus”.
