OREANDA-NEWS Roman Protasevich, the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the "NEXTA" Telegram-channel detained in Belarus, is preparing a lawsuit against "Ryanair". He stated this in a video message on Youtube.

"I will not disclose all the details at the moment, but I plan to file a lawsuit against "Ryanair" and also urge all passengers who were on board this flight to file a similar lawsuit," Protasevich said.

He added that a team of lawyers is working on drafting the claim, and promised to provide details after the application is ready. According to Protasevich, he is primarily interested in the fact that the incident with the plane was investigated.

Protasevich expressed hope that the members of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will also get acquainted with his statement of claim.

According to the ex-editor-in-chief of "NEXTA", he has evidence of involvement in the incident with the Ryanair plane of his former colleagues in the opposition, who are now in the territory of the European Union, as well as the Belarusian hacker organization "Cyber-partisans". Belarusian law enforcement agencies also have evidence, Protasevich noted.

"I am ready to provide documented evidence of all my words. And the official bodies of the Republic of Belarus are ready to provide the same evidence," he said.

In May 2021, a Ryanair airliner flying from Athens to Vilnius landed in Minsk due to a false report about a bomb on board. Among the passengers was the former editor-in-chief of the opposition Belarusian Telegram-channel "NEXTA" Roman Protasevich, he was detained. In Belarus, Protasevich is accused of organizing mass riots and "inciting social hostility" to government officials and security forces.