Father Of Arrested Belarus Blogger Says Son "Physically Harmed"

The father of arrested Belarusian opposition blogger Roman Protasevich said Tuesday it was clear his son had been harmed from a video of him "confessing" to charges of organising protests.

"It's clear that he was physically harmed because you can see the signs of a beating on his face," Dmitry Protasevich told AFP.

The father said he thought Protasevich had some teeth missing.

"He was very nervous. He spoke in a way that was unusual for him. He would never speak like that. It's clear that he was reading something out that he was told to read out," he said.

The father said he had communicated with his son on Saturday, a day before he took a flight from Athens to Vilnius that was diverted to Minsk where he and his girlfriend were arrested.

"We have no news from him. We still don't know where he is, what his condition is, how he feels," the father, who lives in Poland, said by telephone.

EU leaders on Monday agreed to cut Europe's air links with Belarus and urged EU-based airlines not to fly over its airspace, calling on Belarus to release Protasevich and Sofia Sapega.

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