(MENAFN) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that Roman Protasevich, the opposition activist arrested after a Ryanair flight was forced to land in Minsk in 2021, was actually an undercover KGB officer.

Protasevich and Sofia Sapega had run influential Telegram channels that Minsk declared extremist during anti-government protests in 2020-2021. Their arrest after the flight diversion, prompted by an alleged bomb threat, drew widespread international condemnation and led to sanctions from the US, UK, and EU. Both were later pardoned by Lukashenko.

Protasevich confirmed the claim himself, telling Russian news agency RIA Novosti that he is indeed an officer of Belarusian intelligence. The revelation challenges his previous image in Western media as a dissident and comes amid prior US sanctions on Belarusian airlines, some of which were later eased under a deal that freed 52 prisoners.

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