Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw on Friday, she dismissed an interview shown on state television in Belarus with Raman Pratasevich, a journalist who was arrested after his plane was forced to land in Minsk. In the video he tearfully confessed on Thursday to his role in anti-government protests while saying he was fully cooperating with investigators and declaring that he respects authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko whom he opposed for years.
"All such videos are shot under pressure. We should not pay attention to these words because they are said after torture... The task of political prisoners is to survive," Tikhanovskaya told reporters.
In an interview for Polish public broadcaster TVP on Thursday, she said that "the hijacking of the Pratasevich plane shows the scale of impunity of the Lukashenko regime." In the interview, she also stressed that "all those countries that support people in Belarus who want new elections to resolve the political crisis," are on the good side of the conflict.
Arrived in Warsaw on Thursday, Tikhanovskaya started her visit by meeting with the participants of a hunger strike in Warsaw held in solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners.
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Source: PAP, IAR, AFP