Journalist’s confession ‘coerced’

The dissident Belarusian journalist hauled off a Ryanair flight and thrown in jail has been paraded on Belarusian state television in an interview that family and colleagues say was filmed under duress. Belarus last month scrambled a fighter jet, forcing a flight destined for Lithuania to land in Minsk, and arrested Roman Protasevich, who was travelling from Athens with his girlfriend. The 26-year-old journalist “confessed” to having organised violent riots in Minsk last summer and praised Alexander Lukashenko, who won a rigged vote in August 2020. The journalist’s father, Dmitry, said on Dozhd, the Russian television channel: “I’m sure he has been coerced to talk, I’m sure he’s been intimidated.”