Protasevich's father about video of his son: broken nose and a lot of powder on his face

Reuters

The father of detained journalist Roman Protasevich is convinced that his son was forced to admit "guilt" in a video posted on May 24 on the Internet. Dmitry Protasevich believes that Roman was beaten, as he said interviewed by Reuters, as “Liga” reported.

"It's likely his nose is broken, because the shape of it has changed and there's a lot of powder on it. All of the left side of his face has powder," the elder Protasevich told Reuters in an interview in Russian late on Monday from Wroclaw, Poland, where he and his wife live.

"It's not his words, it's not his intonation of speech. He is acting very reserved and you can see he is nervous," Protasevich said of his son. "And it's not his pack of cigarettes on the table - he doesn't smoke these. So I think he was forced."

The father added: "My son cannot admit to creating the mass disorders, because he just didn't do any such thing."

As IMI reported, As IMI reported, Roman Protasevych was detained on May 23. He was a passenger on the Athens-Vilnius flight, which made a forced land in Minsk due to a report of a bomb threat on board. After the inspection, Belarusian police arrested him. Ryanair has received instructions from Belarusian air traffic controllers to land the plane in Minsk. By order of the president Lukashenko, a MiG-29 military fighter was lifted into the sky to escort the plane.

Together with Protasevich, security forces detained his girlfriend Sofia Sapega.

As IMI reported, the State Security Committee of Belarus entered the founders of the NEXTA Telegram Channel to the list of persons involved in terrorist activities, along with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s leaders and other international terrorists.

An updated version of the List of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities has been published on the website of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus

As IMI reported, on November 16, Belarus sent a note to the Polish side demanding immediate extradition of Stepan Putyl and Roman Protasevich. 

On November 5, the Investigative Committee of Belarus accused Stepan Putylo and Roman Protasevich of organizing mass riots in Belarus. 

On October 20, the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk found the Nexta Live telegram channel and the Nexta logo to be extremist. 

The telegram channel Nexta Live, which covers the protests in Belarus  has been renamed as "HEXTA-Live", after a Minsk court recognized his logo as "extremist stuff."

On August 14, it became known that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus had opened proceedings against the founder of the opposition telegram channels Nekhta and Nekhta Live, Stepan Putylo and declared him wanted. He faces up to 15 years in prison. Putyla is accused of organizing mass riots.

In August, Russia's Interior Ministry put Stepan Putilo, the founder of the Nexta Telegram channel on a wanted list.

The telegram channel Nexta Live, despite the shutdown of the Internet, became the main source of information about the protests in Belarus.