Belarus jet 'hijack': 'Wouldn't come as a surprise' if detained journalist Roman Protasevich was forced to make confession, says minister

A government minister has said it would not come as a surprise if a journalist detained in Belarus after a flight was diverted there was forced to appear in a video admitting to organising anti-government protests, as his father has claimed.

Roman Protasevich was arrested after authorities in his native Belarus forced the Ryanair jet carrying him to land in the capital Minsk on Sunday.

Mr Protasevich, 26, who is based in Lithuania, appeared on a video on Monday admitting he had played a role in organising anti-government protests in Minsk last year.

His father Dzmitry Protasevich saw the video from his home in Poland, and dismissed it as the result of coercion.

He said: ''I think he was forced. It's not his words, it's not his intonation of speech, he is acting very reserved and you can see he is nervous."

Mr Protasevich said he believed it was "very likely" that his son's nose had been "broken, because the shape of it is changed and there's much powder on the front of it, all of the left side of his face has powder, there's some greasy stuff on the left side".

He added: "And my son cannot admit to creating the mass disorders, because he just didn't do any such thing. It's unlikely he went for a deal with prosecutors. I think it's just that he was forced to record the message."

Therese Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky News on Tuesday: "I don't think it would come as any surprise. I'm not in any position to tell you what our intelligence on this is on the coercion, or not, but all I can say is the behaviour of the Belarus regime does not lend itself to think that in anyway this statement was offered voluntarily."

It comes as airlines began avoiding Belarus airspace after EU leaders on Monday night urged all EU-based carriers to avoid flying over the country.

EU Council chief Charles Michel, who presided over the EU meeting, said: "We won't tolerate that one can try to play Russian roulette with the lives of innocent civilians."

Finnair, Air France and Polish airline Lot said they were diverting flights, with flight-tracking websites also appearing to show other airlines doing so.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has banned flights to and from Belarus from Wednesday and said it would prevent passengers arriving from Belarus from passing through its airports.

The younger Mr Protasevich was among more than 100 passengers on board the flight from Athens, Greece, when it was diverted from its scheduled destination of Vilnius, Lithuania, on the orders of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane and ordered it to land.

A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled as an escort in a brazen show of force by Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over a quarter of a century and has close ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Mr Protasevich and his female companion Sofia Sapega, 23, were both detained before the remaining passengers continued on to Lithuania.

In the video of his "admission", the prominent Lukashenko critic said: "I can say that I don't have any health problems with my heart or any other organs. I'm being treated with respect and according to the law.

"Right now I continue to cooperate with police and confess to organising mass protests in Minsk."

Britain, the European Union and the US are among the nations to have condemned what was described by Ryanair's boss as a "state-sponsored hijacking".

EU leaders agreed new sanctions against Belarus, including a ban on the use of the bloc's airspace and airports and urged the International Civil Aviation Organisation to start an investigation into what they viewed as an unprecedented move and what some said amounted to state terrorism or piracy.

US President Joe Biden said: "This outrageous incident and the video Mr Protasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press."

Mr Biden also welcomed EU calls for targeted economic sanctions and said he had asked his team to "develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible, in close coordination with the European Union, other allies and partners, and international organisations".

Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the interception was a "shocking assault on civil aviation".

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