National Post (National Edition)
`NO DOUBT' PROTASEVICH WAS TORTURED
That follows a statement from Global Affairs Minister Marc Garneau on Sunday that demanded Belarus release Protasevich and called the state's actions “a serious interference in civil aviation and a clear attack on media freedom.”
Protasevich is a former editor of Nexta, a Poland-based media outlet followed closely by the pro-democracy opposition in Belarus. It publishes on Telegram, a secure online messaging app.
In 2019, fearing persecution, Protasevich fled to Poland. He now lives in exile in Lithuania, and was headed there from Greece when his flight was diverted to Minsk over what the Belarusian government has claimed was a bomb threat.
A video released overnight showed Protasevich confessing to having organized antigovernment demonstrations.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the footage showed Protasevich had been tortured.
“He said that he was treated lawfully, but he's clearly beaten and under pressure. There is no doubt that he was tortured. He was taken hostage,” she told a news conference in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
Belarus did not immediately comment on the torture allegation but has consistently denied abusing detainees.
Meanwhile, a video posted on a proLukashenko channel on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday showed a young woman sitting in a chair who said she was Sofia Sapega.
The woman admitted that she was the editor of a social media channel that has disclosed the personal information of Belarusian law enforcement personnel, a crime in Belarus.
After the diversion of the Ryanair flight this weekend, other airlines including Lufthansa, KLM, SAS, Air France, LOT and Singapore Airlines have announced they won't fly through Belarusian air space. Neighbouring countries Ukraine and Poland have suspended flights to and from Belarus, and Britain also said it was banning Belarusian airlines from entering its airspace.
“If we let this go, tomorrow Alexander Lukashenko will go further and do something even more arrogant, more cruel,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement.
European Union leaders at a summit on Monday had called for airlines based in the 27-member bloc to halt flights over Belarusian airspace, which is along a major corridor connecting Europe and Asia and earns hard currency from overflight rights.
EU leaders also directed officials to draw up unspecified new sanctions against Belarus, and to work out a way to ban Belarusian airlines from the bloc's skies.
Canada, acting with its allies, had imposed sanctions on Belarusian officials last fall after Lukashenko held on to power following a disputed election and arrested opposition figures.
“The sanctions announced today underscore broad international opposition to the Government of Belarus' complete disregard for the basic principles of democracy and respect for human rights,” the Canadian government said in a statement last October.
In a statement released shortly after Trudeau's news conference ended, Belarus announced it will be closing its embassy in Canada in September and will stop processing visa applications and other consular documents on July 10.
It said other consular functions are expected to be handled through Belarus's presence in the United States.