Tsikhanouskaya held a press briefing regarding the plane capture and the arrest of Pratasevich

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “This is the second day since the Ryanair flight was captured. Roman Pratasevich, a blogger and activist, was arrested, we don’t know his location and condition. There is a high chance that he is being tortured by the police.

Sophia Sapega, his girlfriend, was detained alongside him. She is 23, she was on the same flight. Sophia is a Russian citizen, and the human rights advocates say that the Russian consul refused to help her.

It is hard to imagine what Roman and Sophia went through and are going through at the moment. The passengers who made it to Vilnius said that when the plane was turned towards Minsk, Roman began shaking and before he was arrested, he said: “Death penalty awaits me there”.

Roman is 26 – the same age as the current Belarusian regime. To capture him, Lukashenka has personally ordered a military aircraft to intercept a plane carrying European citizens. Yesterday’s events and the EU’s reaction to them showed this: everyone now understands that not just Belarusians are in danger. This was an act of state-sanctioned terrorism, and now any passenger of a civilian airplane flying over Belarus is at risk. The regime has turned the country into a North Korea in the middle of Europe.

We have been in contact with Roman’s parents for the past two days. They consider him a hero and are ready to fight for their son’s freedom. I am also in contact with Pavel Latushka to ensure we have a united position. My team has requested information on the events at the Athens airport from the government of Greece. According to Ryanair’s management, there could’ve been secret services agents on board. Before boarding, Roman himself said that he was being watched.

We are in contact with ministers from Ireland and Poland, as well as the Lithuanian government. This evening I’m going to have a phone call with a representative of Biden’s administration. We have just discussed the next steps with Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

We insist that the international community reacts: introduces new sanctions, expels Belarus from the International Civil Aviation Organization, and launches an investigation so that all the perpetrators get appropriately punished. We also call to suspend the membership of Belarus in international organizations like Interpol because the regime uses it for political purposes.

We won’t stop at half-measures. Roman Pratasevich, Sophia Sapega, and the rest of the political prisoners in Belarus must be freed. But it is important to remember that the decisive solution to the political and humanitarian crisis in Belarus is only possible through the new and fair elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus”.