Prosecutors In Luhansk People's Republic Seek Extradition Of Protasevich From Belarus

LUHANSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st June, 2021) The chief prosecutor's office in the breakaway eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk asked Belarus on Tuesday to hand over detained opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, who is wanted in Luhansk on suspicion of taking part in military action against civilians.

Ukrainian prosecutors opened an investigation last week into the 26 year old, whom Belarus accuses of helping to run an outlawed Telegram channel, on allegations that he fought alongside Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

"The criminal investigation confirmed Protasevich's role in the shelling of civilians in Donbas and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

The prosecutor general's office of the Luhansk People's Republic [LPR] asked Belarusian police to let it bring Protasevich in for investigative procedures in the LPR," a spokesperson said.

Protasevich was detained in Minsk on May 23 after disembarking from a Ryanair plane. The jet was en route from Athens to Vilnius when it was diverted to Belarus, which says that it was alerted to a bomb on board and that there was no pressure on the jet to land. Western countries argue that it was a forced landing.