Palchys: Pratasevich Did Not Even Try to Break His Phone and Laptop, Throw Them in the Toilet — Whatever It Took

For my first post, I had a different topic, but today an extremely important and interesting interview with Sofia Sapega was released.

By the way, Raman Pratasevich is my main and favorite witness in my own criminal case (why — I will write a little later).

I remember how on the morning of May 24, 2021, I was lying on the third bunk in a Valadarka cell, while in the background a TV was on. I was reading and listening to the news simultaneously:

“Yesterday, a Ryanair plane made a forced landing in Minsk...”

I glanced at the screen and started watching the report. Everything looked seemingly neutral, as if a technical error had occurred. And then, at the end of the report, it was announced:

“A passenger who was on a wanted list was removed from the flight. He turned out to be Raman Pratasevich...”

I returned to my book. At that moment, everything became absolutely clear to me, both about the plane and about what had happened. Not to say that I was in shock. Rather, I felt like I was in some strange Netflix series.

Pratasevich, whom I had known even before 2020, and whom I once recommended for a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty scholarship, who confessed to me that he dreamed of becoming a war correspondent in hot spots and working for American media — he arrived. I only wondered if he would be able to pass this ordeal.

Later, when familiarizing myself with my criminal case, I saw confirmation of Sapega's words that Roma had terribly panicked.

My main claim against him is that he did not even try to destroy the equipment. Break the phone and laptop, throw them in the toilet, start the formatting process — whatever it took. He completely handed over the phone, in which investigators calmly rummaged with the help of special software, extracting all data. They entered the surname of the person they were interested in and immediately saw all correspondence or connections.

And later, when going to courts and getting acquainted with other political prisoners, I learned about the consequences of his choice.

People whom Pratasevich exposed were detained extremely harshly: beatings, torture, humiliation — everything came as a complete package. Especially those who helped obtain information about security forces and officials.

And they didn't even dare to bring him to my trial. The judge ostentatiously asked the prosecutor several times: "Where is the main witness?" to which he invariably received the answer: "He's at investigative actions." Apparently, they were afraid that I would be able to exert psychological influence on him.

By the way, even then the prisoners began to whisper that Sapega was behaving much more honorably than Raman. And Sofia's interview fully confirms this. I hope that Sofia will be able to recover after everything and get back on her feet.

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