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Updated May 27th, 2021 at 13:18 IST

Who is Roman Protasevich? All you need to know about detained Belarusian journalist

Protasevich is editor-in-chief of an anti-government alternate media network that runs on the secure messaging app Telegram — known as Nexta.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Roman Protasevich
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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Dissident Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich hit the headlines worldwide after the commercial flight FR4978 from Athens to Lithuania that he boarded was intercepted by the fighter jet MiG-29 and abruptly diverted to land in the Belarus capital Minsk. In the dramatic unfolding of the events, Protasevich was hounded and arrested after his Ryanair flight landed, along with his 23-year-old Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega. But what do we know about the 26-year-old critic of the government from the Eastern European nation, whose arrest was authorized by the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko himself as he gave “unequivocal order” to Deputy Air Force Commander Andrei Gurtsevich for the detention? 

Protasevich is editor-in-chief of an anti-government alternate media network that runs on the secure messaging app Telegram — known as Nexta [translates to ‘someone’ in the Belarusian language]. Last year, Nexta led wide coverage of the unauthorized anti-government demonstrations in the capital city of Belarus against President Alexander Lukashenko and his administration. Hundreds of thousands of anti-Lukashenko demonstrators coalesced across the nation with unregistered symbols and placards demanding their embattled President steps down after he won the sixth term in the disputed elections.

While Lukashenko ordered the Police Department of Minsk City Executive Committee to launch a rigorous crackdown on the protesting mob, the protests swelled and scattered in more than 70 different regions of the capital making it harder for security forces to restore law and order as the mob expressed angst, gathered in large groups waving red-and-white flags, the symbol of the protest, chanting “Lukashenko, go away!”

[Credit: AP]

Viasna human rights center reported that hundreds of thousands were arbitrarily taken into detention as mass protests and violence gripped the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million people opposing the Aug. 9 presidential elections that handed Lukashenko a landslide victory over his widely popular opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” Lukashenko added Protasevich's name to a list of "individuals involved in terrorist activity.” This is because the encrypted Telegram channel Nexta that has over 1.3 million subscribers became a key source of information after internet services were "significantly disrupted" in the country, according to Online monitor NetBlocks. 

'Secure transmission' of information, protests 

Amid the heightened tensions as angry protesters flooded streets, wreaked destruction, and havoc demanding their longtime authoritarian leader Lukashenko’s dismissal, Roman Potasetich’s decentralized anonymous platform Nexta was conducting secure transmission of information. “The good thing about Telegram is that it's the only platform that worked somehow,” Nexta's Editor in chief, had at the time told reporters. He added, “we actively advised our subscribers to use proxies, VPN, Tor, and other ways to bypass the total blockage of the internet, which continues in Belarus.” 

[Journalist Roman Protasevich. Credit: AP]

The armed police officers and security forces would stand and watch at the entrance to Protasevich’s makeshift office in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The office is Next founded by 22 years old  Stepan Svetlov that had flared the protests against Lukashenko’s 22 years of the solid regime. While the riot police and the protesters clashed on the streets amid the total internet blackout inside Belarus NEXTA, from Poland, was operating equipped with anti-censorship safeguards broadcasting violent crackdown by the Belarusian security forces on the civilians. ABC broadcasting corp., in a report disclosed, that the platform in fact “posted calls” for where protesters should gather as it aired coverage of police brutality that acted catalyst to the public fury and anger. 

Protasevich's platform would guide the protests in real-time about the security forces' location and where to buy protective gears to escape the impact of stun grenades and rubber bullets. Nexta’s operation, as per the reports, was largely run by Belarusian exiles including journalist and activist Protasevich after they migrated to Telegram fearing YouTube censors. Since then, Protasevich had been a “most wanted target”. When Belarusian authorities this week learned of Protasevich’s travel aboard the commercial Ryanair passenger plane from Greece to Lithuania, Belarus had decided to ground the plane and grab the organizer of the mass protests against the Belarusian regime. 

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Published May 27th, 2021 at 13:18 IST

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