New excerpts from Pratasevičius’ “interview”: propagandists claim to have shown their emotions

The recording appeared on the Telegram channel of the official Belta information channel, writes unian.net.

The propagandists say they wanted to show the “emotions” of the detained journalist.

“The emotions of Ramanas Pratasevičius during the recording of an interview with the journalist Marat Markov. Some excerpts will be shown for the first time,” say the propagandists.

In the recording, the detained activist talks about his colleagues in the opposition camp, as well as with tears in his eyes during a break to ask for permission to smoke.

At the end of the interview, Ramanas Pratasevičius asks when he will be shown. “We’ll see how the facility works,” answers the man who asked the questions.

May 23 Belarus diverted and forcibly landed a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius in Minsk. The regime arrested activist R. Pratasevičius and his friend Sofia Sapega, who were flying the plane.

R. Pratasevičius is one of the founders of the opposition channel Nexta on the Telegram platform and a former editor of the channel.

The channel contributed to the massive protests last year against the authoritarian Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenko.

1.5 hours last Thursday. Pratasevičius admitted that he had organized protests and praised Lukashenko, then shouted in an “interview” with Belarusian state television.

Cichanouskaya said on Friday that the interview had been tortured by an activist, and German government spokesman Steffen Seibert called the interview “absolutely embarrassing and unconvincing.”

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Friday that an interview with Belarusian state television by journalist R. Pratasevičius was “disturbing” and that the activist was “clearly under violence”.

“Pratasevičius appears to have been abused and imprisoned in an interview last night,” said the UK Foreign Secretary, condemning the actions of the Belarusian regime, as did Germany and Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanouskaya.

“The persecution of defenders of human rights and freedom of the press in Belarus must stop,” Raab said on a Twitter account. “Those involved in filming, coercing and conducting interviews must be held accountable for their actions,” he said.

“It’s hard to imagine what he did to him,” his father Dzmitras Pratasevičius told Dožd television on Thursday night, right after the propaganda channel ONT’s “interview” with R. Pratasevičius, who was arrested during the crash landing of a passenger. siding in Minsk.

According to him, in Belarus the journalist of the state channel has more rights than the lawyer, who has not been admitted to Raman for five days.

“What else to add? It is really horrible, horrible what is happening. As a parent, it is very difficult for me. If someone saw that movie, they might have noticed that there is a constant struggle within Raman between what he has to say and what he would never say in life. And this is evident on his face. I am sure this is the result of more than a week of torture outside the walls of the KGB remand prison, mockery, beatings. At first he was suffocated, beaten, clearly visible marks from the handcuffs. It’s terrifying to think about how long she kept him locked up. I was intimidated. And now it is not clear where they keep him, maybe stunned by what psychotropic substances, I don’t know, nobody can stop our authorities, ”said the father of the 26-year-old activist.

According to him, they are now trying to give the impression that Raman is talking about what they are really thinking, not what they want to hear. “He wants the protesters to be divided on how to confess what is not clear. We know our son very well. Our son will never confess what he did not do. of everything, he admits everything himself. “So, I have no doubt: what Raman says is the result of intimidation, the result of constant physical and psychological violence. He was simply bullied, threatened, perhaps threatened with killing his girlfriend and himself. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to imagine, it’s hard to talk about it, “said D. Pratasevičius.