Alexander Lukashenko’s regime went to great lengths to arrest Raman Pratasevich. On May 23, 2021, Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair plane on its way from Athens to Vilnius, in Lithuania, to land in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, sparking global outrage.
As soon as the plane touched down, Pratasevich, the former editor-in-chief of Nexta, a Belarusian media networkthat was largely distributed ” by the Belarusian regime, was escorted off and arrested along with his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.
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Nexta, which operated from Poland, was the most important news after the rigged Belarus presidential election. Lukashenko said he had won a landslide victory, but the opposition disputed his claim. Nexta, where Pratasevich worked until September 2020, played a key role in coordinating the anti-government protests and sharing the locations and times of upcoming demonstrations.
In May 2021, Pratasevich — who by this time had already moved to Vilnius with Sapega — traveled to the Delphi Economic Forum in Greece, where exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was due to meet with European politicians.
Afterwards, Pratasevich and Sapega stayed on in Greece for a vacation. Before their scheduled flight on May 23, Pratasevich noticed that he was being followed at the airport and was able to inform his colleagues before boarding. Greek authorities later confirmed that three men with Russian passports had also boarded the flight from Athens to Vilnius.
As the plane passed over Belarus, Belarusian air traffic controllers, claiming that there was a bomb on board, instructed the pilots to change course and land in Minsk. The real reason for the diversion, however, was to allow Belarusian authorities to arrest Pratasevich and Sapega.
The incident led to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to ban European airlines from flying over Belarus altogether. The US Federal Aviation Administration imposed a similar restriction for US airlines. Belarusian airlines, such as state-owned carrier Belavia, have also been banned from landing at and taking off from EU airports since June 2021.
One year after Pratasevich’s arrest at Minsk airport, the International Civil Aviation Organization concluded in a report that the claim of a bomb threat had been deliberately false.
A change of heart?
Just one day after Pratasevich was arrested, a video was published on a pro-government Belarusian Telegram channel that showed him in custody, saying he would now be cooperating with investigators and was willing to make a confession. The video showed dark bruises on his face.
A German government spokesperson said Pratasevich’s treatment was disgraceful. “An opposition journalist and his partner were abducted from an airplane after a forced landing, probably under false pretenses, he was placed behind bars and put under psychological, and possibly also physical, pressure so that he was forced into giving a completely unworthy and unbelievable confession,” said the spokesperson.
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A month later, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry held a press conference — with Pratasevich in attendance, surprisingly. He claimed that he had not come under any pressure, and it remains unclear whether he was coerced into making his statements.
On May 3, 2023, Pratasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison for allegedly organizing mass riots, calling for terrorist attacks and leading an extremist organization, He was also ordered to pay the equivalent of €7 million ($8.1 million) in damages — the estimated cost of suppressing the 2020 protests, according to the public prosecutors.
But not even three weeks later, Pratasevich was pardoned by Lukashenko. He was then removed from the Belarusian government’s list of terrorists in July. No explanation was given for this sudden U-turn.
Sapega, who had been sentenced to six years in prison in May 2022, was pardoned in June 2023 and returned to her home country, Russia.
Pratasevich has since tried his hand as a factory welder, a postman and a bartender. He reportedly has complained that he cannot really find work because of his past.
The Belarusian authorities still seem to be trying to exploit him. They wanted him to interview jailed Belarusian opposition politicians Viktor Babariko, Maria Kolesnikova and Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who were released in December 2025 as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Belarus. But none of them agreed to provide Pratasevich with a “confession video.”
In 2025, the authorities started creating a new elarusian state security, Ivan Tertel, said Pratasevich was an “employee of our foreign intelligence service [who had] served in combat missions in various countries and carried out important missions.” Tertel himself had labeled Pratasevich as a “terrorist” in 2021.
Now, Belarusian state security claims Pratasevich began sharing intelligence on the protest movement in 2020. This claim, too, cannot be verified. Likewise, the Belarusian authorities have failed to explain why Pratasevich’s plane was forced to land in Mink five years ago, if he was already supposedly collaborating with the secret service.
It remains completely unclear whether Pratasevich is working voluntarily with Belarusian authorities, or is being pressured to do so.
But he has apparently now assumed the role of regime loyalist, and since 2025, he has hosted a show on state television that allegedly “exposes” opposition members.
This article was originally written in Russian.
