“The Dramatic Plane Hijacking and Imprisonment of Regime Critic Raman Pratasevich in Belarus”

A dramatic “plane hijacking” sent the regime critic Raman Pratasevich to prison in Belarus. Now he is accused of being a “dark figure” who let everyone down.

On May 23, 2021, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko shocked Europe and the rest of the world. The dictator sent up a MiG fighter jet to force down a Ryanair plane flying through the country’s airspace.

A false allegation of a bomb threat was used as a pretext. Lukashenko was looking for the then 26-year-old Raman Pratasevich. As editor of the Telegram channel Nexta, he had criticized the regime in Minsk. He played an important role during the organization of the major protests in 2020.