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| - Belarusian opposition Telegram channel Nexta said Sunday its former editor and exiled opposition activist Roman Protasevich had been detained at Minsk airport after his Lithuania-bound flight made an emergency landing. Nexta Live and its sister channel Nexta are prominent voices of the Belarus opposition and helped mobilise protesters during the demonstrations that gripped the ex-Soviet country last year after a disputed presidential election. Protesters demanded the resignation of strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for over two decades and in August secured a landslide victory in an election his opponents say was rigged. Protasevich was travelling aboard a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, which made an emergency landing following a bomb scare, TASS news agency reported citing the press service of Minsk airport. "The plane was checked, no bomb was found and all passengers were sent for another security search," Nexta said. "Among them was... Nexta journalist Roman Protasevich. He was detained." It added that Protasevich said that he was followed before boarding the flight. Last year, 26-year old Protasevich and Nexta founder Stepan Putilo, 22, were added to Belarus's list of "individuals involved in terrorist activity". The two bloggers -- who live in Poland -- were added to the list based on earlier charges of causing mass unrest, an offence that can lead to up to 15 years of imprisonment. They are also facing charges of inciting social hatred against government and law enforcement officials, and have been added to international wanted lists in Belarus and in Russia, an ally of Lukashenko. "It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of secret services to capture the plane in order to detain activist and blogger Roman Protasevich," exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Telegram. Both Tikhanovskaya and Nexta say that Protasevich could face the death penalty in Belarus. In October, Belarus labelled the Nexta Telegram channel and its logo "extremist" and ordered it blocked. Re-posting information from the channels is punishable by a fine. tk-acl/bp
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