TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The Belarusian prosecutor’s office on Friday sought a 10-year prison sentence for a dissident Belarusian journalist who was arrested after a fighter jet forced a commercial plane headed for Lithuania off the ground.
Raman Pratasevich is on trial in Belarus on charges of organizing a riot and conspiring to seize power. Pratasevich ran a channel on the Telegram messaging app that was used constantly by those taking part in mass protests against the outcome of a controversial August 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.
The protests, which lasted for months, were the largest and longest demonstration against Lukashenko since he took power in 1994. The Belarusian authorities responded to the protests with a brutal crackdown in which more than 35,000 people were arrested, thousands of protesters were assaulted by the police and dozens of media outlets and non-governmental organizations were shut down.
Pratasevich was living in exile at the time, but he and his girlfriend were arrested in May 2021 when their Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was ordered to land in the Belarusian capital Minsk. Belarusian authorities noted that there was a bomb threat, but later said no explosives were found on board.
Western countries classified the diversion of the flight as tantamount to a hijacking and imposed heavy sanctions against Lukashenko and Belarus.
Pratasevich subsequently made several confessional appearances on state television that critics say were made under duress. He then he was placed under house arrest.
His girlfriend, a Russian citizen, was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2022.
Pratasevich looked healthy at his trial on Friday. Two founders of the Nexta Telegram channel are also being tried in absentia.
