UN Security Council to meet over Protasevich detention

UN Security Council to meet over Protasevich detention

The UN Security Council will hold an informal closed-door meeting tomorrow on Belarus, which is accused of diverting an airliner and arresting a dissident on board, diplomatic sources said.

After weathering a wave of protests and Western sanctions last year, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko faced extraordinary new pressure over Sunday’s rerouting of the Ryanair flight to Minsk and arrest of opposition journalist Roman Protasevich.

“We will do a (meeting) tomorrow,” one diplomat told AFP, with two other diplomatic sources confirming the plan for the virtual session.

Diplomats told AFP it was unlikely the security council could agree at the meeting on a collective statement.

Belarus’s unwavering supporter Russia was expected to be in opposition, one diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

More Western leaders joined calls today demanding Mr Protasevich’s release, after the European Union agreed to ban Belarusian airlines from the bloc and called on EU-based carriers not to fly over its airspace.

Mr Lukashenko and his allies are already under a series of Western sanctions over a brutal crackdown on opposition protests that followed his disputed re-election to a sixth term last August.

The erratic 66-year-old leader was due to address parliament tomorrow, in his first comments since a jet was scrambled to intercept the Ryanair flight.

Earlier, the United Nations rights office demanded the immediate release of Mr Protasevich and his girlfriend after their flight was forced to land in Minsk.

“We call for the immediate release of both Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega, both of whom should be allowed to continue to their intended destination in Lithuania,” spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

“We are shocked by the unlawful arrest and arbitrary detention,” he said.

The plane was forcibly diverted to the Belarusian capital, “apparently under false pretences” with the express purpose of capturing Mr Protasevich, Mr Colville said.

“The manner, through threat of military force, in which Protasevich was abducted from the jurisdiction of another state and brought within that of Belarus was tantamount to an extraordinary rendition.

“Such abuse of state power against a journalist for exercising functions that are protected under international law is receiving, and deserves, the strongest condemnation.”

Mr Colville said the UN rights office feared for Mr Protasevich’s safety and sought assurances that he was treated humanely and was not subjected to ill treatment or torture.

“His appearance on state TV last night was not reassuring, given the apparent bruising to his face, and the strong likelihood that his appearance was not voluntary, and his ‘confession’ to serious crimes was forced,” said Mr Colville.

He said information obtained under coercion could not be used against Mr Protasevich in any legal proceedings as forced confessions are prohibited under the Convention against Torture.

Furthermore, the forced landing of the passenger plane “terrorised passengers on board and exposed them to unnecessary danger, in violation of their human rights”, Mr Colville added.

Earlier, Mr Protasevich’s father said it was clear his son had been harmed from a video of him “confessing” to charges of organising protests.

“It’s clear that he was physically harmed because you can see the signs of a beating on his face,” Dmitry Protasevich told AFP.

The father said he thought Mr Protasevich had some teeth missing.

“He was very nervous. He spoke in a way that was unusual for him. He would never speak like that. It’s clear that he was reading something out that he was told to read out,” he said.

The father said he had communicated with his son on Saturday, a day before he took a flight from Athens to Vilnius that was diverted to Minsk where he and his partner were arrested.

“We have no news from him. We still don’t know where he is, what his condition is, how he feels,” his father, who lives in Poland, said by telephone.

EU leaders last night agreed to cut Europe’s air links with Belarus and urged EU-based airlines not to fly over its airspace, calling on Belarus to release Mr Protasevich and Ms Sapega.

Sofia Sapega accused of unspecified crimes

Sofia Sapega, 23, the Russian girlfriend of detained Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich, is being held in Belarus on suspicion of “committing crimes” between August and September 2020.

She was arrested with him when their plane was diverted to Minsk.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement today that Ms Sapega was being held on suspicion of “committing crimes” between August and September 2020.

That period corresponds with the outbreak of mass anti-government protests that rocked ex-Soviet Belarus after a disputed presidential election in August last year.

The charges against Ms Sapega were not specified, but Ms Zakharova said they are covered by several articles of the Belarusian criminal code.

After three days, there will be a ruling on whether to release her or put her in pre-trial detention, the statement added.

Ms Zakharova said a Russian consul met yesterday with Ms Sapega’s parents, who live in western Belarus.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier today he “hopes that in the near future” Ms Sapega will be released.