British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the video was made for painful viewing, while the exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya stated that the video was made for painful viewing. The video undoubtedly caused Protasevich to be tortured.

She told a press conference in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania: “He said he was treated legally, but he was apparently beaten and pressured. There is no doubt that he was tortured. He was taken hostage.”

Johnson said in a tweet that the actions of Belarus “will have consequences.”

Belarus has not commented on the allegations of torture, but has consistently denied ill-treatment of detainees.

Protasevich and a 23-year-old student accompanying him were arrested after being escorted by Belarusian fighters on a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania.

“State hijacking”

Western powers widely condemned the incident, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it a “state hijacking” on Tuesday.

Official Belarusian media reported that President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered the interception of the flight. Belarus stated that this was a response to the bomb panic, which was later proved to be a false alarm. The International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, stated that this incident may have violated the basic treaty on international civil aviation, the 1944 Chicago Convention.

At least three other people got off the plane in Minsk. Western countries believed that this was a spy. They helped coordinate an operation to capture Protasvic.

A Lithuanian official told Reuters that the three passengers who disembarked included two Belarusian citizens and a Greek citizen. The Belarusian State Television broadcast an interview with the three on Monday.

At a summit on Monday, EU leaders called on airlines headquartered in the 27-member group to stop flying in Belarusian airspace, which runs along the main corridor connecting Europe and Asia, and from overflight rights. Earn hard currency in China.

Lufthansa, KLM, Scandinavian Airlines, Air France, LOT Polish Airlines and Singapore Airlines are all airlines that have announced that they will stop flying over Belarus.

The EU leaders also instructed officials to impose unspecified new sanctions against Belarus and devise a method to prohibit Belarusian airlines from withdrawing from the EU skies.

If all these measures are fully implemented, the flight may reach Belarus soon only when it passes the eastern border with Russia, its close ally.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement: “If we leave it alone, tomorrow Alexander Lukashenko will go further and do more arrogant and cruel things.”

The “confession” of the video

Lukashenko’s security service suppressed democratic demonstrations for several months after the election opposition expressed manipulation last year. So far, Lukashenko has got rid of Western sanctions. Western sanctions are mainly composed of blacklists that prohibit various officials from traveling or doing business in the United States and the European Union.

Western politicians have called for tougher measures that may divorce the country from the international financial system or ban its exports. But they did not affect Lukashenko’s behavior. Lukashenko received strong financial and security support from Russia, and Russia believes that NATO’s Belarusian border is its first line of defense.

Russia stated that it was too early to comment on the Ryanair incident, and it also accused Western countries of hypocrisy, and pointed out that a Bolivian presidential plane was transferred to Austria in 2013, after previous reports that the plane was carrying the American intelligence leaker Edward · Snowden.

Moscow also denied the suggestion of Western politicians that it might assist its ally, Belarus, in operations.

Since the presidential election last August, during Lukashenko’s suppression of dissidents, almost all opposition figures have been exiled or imprisoned. Many of them have been accused of organizing demonstrations, which the government called terrorism. Lukashenko denied election fraud.

In a video posted overnight, Protasevich can be seen sitting on a table in a black hooded sweatshirt.

He said: “I can say that I don’t have any health problems, including heart or any other organ diseases. The police are treating me correctly in accordance with the law.” “In addition, I now continue to cooperate with the investigation and admit to organizing large-scale protests in Minsk. .”

Many of his allies quickly wrote on social media that the video tape proved that he was under duress.