Tuesday, May 25, 2021
“Shoot them in Warsaw”
Protassewitch Companion Receives Death Threat
Between two EU cities, Belarus forces a plane to make an unscheduled landing in Minsk and arrests the regime critic Roman Protassewitch. Now his colleague Stephan Putilo reports of death threats.
After a passenger plane was forced to land in Minsk, a colleague of the imprisoned Belarusian blogger Roman Protassewitch claims to receive death threats. “You write to me that it is our turn next, that we will not be kidnapped to Belarus, but shot in Warsaw,” said blogger Stepan Putilo of the Polish newspaper “Rzeczpospolita”.
The 22-year-old Putilo was together with Protassevich the founder of the portal “Nexta” in the news channel Telegram. The editorial office is based in Warsaw. The Telegram channel became the opposition’s main source of information during the protests against the authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. Protassewitsch left “Nexta” at the end of 2020.
Authorities of the authoritarian republic forced a plane to land on Sunday on its way from Athens to Vilnius. The blogger Roman Protassewitsch, who was internationally sought after by Belarus, was also on board the plane. He and his girlfriend were arrested. The procedure triggered massive criticism. Protassevich reported on Monday via video from a remand prison in Minsk. Torture awaits him in custody, said the blogger Putilo. “You could also use banned substances to make him talk.”
After the forced landing of a passenger plane in the Belarusian capital Minsk, Lufthansa is avoiding the airspace over the former Soviet republic for the time being. Flights to Moscow in particular must now be diverted, said a spokesman in Frankfurt.
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