Roman Dmitriyevich Protasevich[a] or Raman Dzmitryevich Pratasevich[b][1] (born 5 May 1995) is a Belarusian blogger and political activist.

[15] He co-administered a major group in VKontakte, a social network, in opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko until 2012, when it was hacked by the authorities.

[23] In March 2019, Protasevich was a photographer for Euroradio.fm at a meeting of the prime ministers of Austria (Sebastian Kurz) and Belarus (Sergey Rumas) in Minsk.

[24] In addition to taking photos, he made at least one video report for Euroradio about Chechen refugees trying to move to the EU through Belarus.

On 19 November, the Belarusian KGB put them both on the "list of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities" for "mass unrest".

[26] On 2 March 2021, Protasevich announced that he had begun working for the Telegram channel Belarus of the Brain, formerly edited by a detained blogger, Ihar Losik.

[27][22] On 23 May 2021, Ryanair Flight 4978 (Athens–Vilnius), with Protasevich on board, received a false bomb threat[28] and was diverted by Belarusian air traffic control to Minsk National Airport.

[23] A fellow passenger was reported to have heard Protasevich speak of the possibility of facing the death penalty, which exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warned about the same day.

[37] On 19 July 2022, ICAO stated that the grounding of the flight was illegal and blamed senior Belarusian officials, also condemning Protasevich's arrest and calling the bomb threat "deliberately false".

[40] The day after the forced Ryanair landing, Belarusian authorities issued a video in which Protasevich claimed he had been treated well and not been harmed, though he looked visibly stressed.

[41] There were dark markings on his forehead, and he stated that he would confess to organizing "mass unrest" and that he did not have health problems, after unconfirmed reports of a heart condition.

[45] Amnesty International called for the release of Protasevich and Sapega, saying "their arrest is arbitrary and unlawful, and its circumstances are nothing short of horrifying".

[46] The Belarusian authorities prevented Protasevich's parents and a hired lawyer, Inessa Olenskaya, from visiting him and obtaining information about his location and medical condition until 27 May 2021.

[47][48] The Minsk branch of the Investigative Committee delayed the process of signing the charging documents, and SIZO staff later claimed that they did not have Protasevich.

[58] Allegedly, Protasevich was provided an internet connection on 7 July 2021, and he created a Twitter account, stating he was staying with Sapega in a private house with a courtyard outside the city and that no one had beaten him.

[4][70][71] He said: "I am incredibly grateful to the country and of course, to the president personally for such a decision" and that he would go to a "quiet place in the countryside for a couple of days" so that he could "take a breather and start to move forward".

[72] After his release, reports leaked that Protasevich testified against his former girlfriend Sapega in order to receive either a reduced sentence or a presidential pardon.

According to news media, Protasevich's testimony against Sapega was handed to the Vladivostok authorities handling her prison transfer case.

He told news outlets that he had pardoned Protasevich because "this guy did everything he promised to save his life or to not go to jail ... he confessed that he had done wrong".

[82][83][84] The Luhansk People's Republic, an unrecognized breakaway polity and participant in the war in Donbas, accused Protasevich of having been a member of the Azov Battalion and having "committed a number of particularly serious crimes, which manifested themselves in the shelling of Donetsk People's Republic settlements, leading to the death and injury of civilians as well as destruction and damage to civilian infrastructure".

Alexander Lukashenko said he was not opposed to Protasevich being interrogated by investigators from the rebel republics involved in the Donbas war against Ukraine, as long as it happened on Belarusian soil.