Activist screams for a minute at briefing over situation in Belarus

A Belarusian activist decrying the recent arrest of a Belarusian journalist screamed for a minute during a press conference on Monday. Speaking during a press conference outside the Belarusian embassy in Warsaw, Jana Shostak said, “We can’t be silent anymore and all we have left is a minute of screaming.“ Activist Stephan Putilo also spoke at the press conference, stating that “the scale of repression is at its maximum in the history of independent Belarus“. Putilo, along with recently arrested journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich, founded Nexta, a popular messaging app that played a key role in helping organise huge protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Pratasevich was arrested on Sunday after Belarusian flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair jetliner flying from Greece to Lithuania that there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through Belarus airspace and ordered it to land. A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane in a brazen show of force by Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over a quarter-century. Belarus authorities then detained the 26-year-old journalist and activist and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega. Pratasevich, who left Belarus in 2019, has been charged in absentia with staging mass riots and fanning social hatred. Those charges carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. Nexta has been labeled as “extremist“ by the Belarusian authorities, and some fear Pratasevich could face more serious charges, including some that carry the death penalty. Subscribe to the Evening Standard on YouTube: