Detained journalist broke his own rule - Never fly over Belarus, says friend

FILE PHOTO: Warsaw-based Belarusian blogger Stsiapan Putsila is pictured at NEXTA office in Warsaw, Poland May 24, 2021. REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki/File Photo

WARSAW/VILNIUS (Reuters) - Roman Protasevich, the Belarusian journalist jailed after his plane was forced to land on Sunday, had decided to avoid flying over Belarus because of the risk of being intercepted but let his guard down, a friend told Reuters.

Protasevich, a critic of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, is now in a Minsk jail along with Sofia Sapega, his girlfriend, on charges his friends say are trumped up.