Blurred Documentary
Shortly after his arrest, Protasevich laid al a statement in which he confessed to co-organizing the protests against Lukashenko. That video was probably shot in a prison in Minsk. There were spots and possible injuries on his face. According to his father, broke his nose.
And yesterday the state channel already showed a documentary about the arrest of Protasevich. In it, he said that the mass protests against Lukashenko have died down and that the opposition must therefore wait for a better time to take to the streets again.
His parents then said again that their son was behaving atypically. She also noticed that Protasevich’s images are blurry, “perhaps to hide injuries”, while the rest of the documentary is of better quality. A colleague of Protasevich says that he sounded “forced”.
Before the interview tonight, the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna already announced that the conversation took place under pressure. An interview with a prisoner is never voluntary, the NGO says.
‘Protasevich followed in Greece’
The documentary created the impression that the Belarusian opposition itself would like to get rid of Protasevich. The makers state that almost no one was aware that the journalist was in the Ryanair device, except his friends and colleagues. The documentary also states that Protasevich’s arrest was reported by an adviser to opposition leader Tikhanovskaya before he was actually arrested.
The American Vice News reported today, citing Greek intelligence sources, that Protasevich, who was in Athens before his arrest, had been followed for days by a group of men with Russian passports. Earlier, colleagues of the journalist said that he was followed by unknown people who took pictures of him.
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