The former editor in chief of social media channel Nexta Roman Protasevich says he owes the Belarusian authorities $7.6mn in damages.

During the mass demonstration in 2020, Nexta played a crucial role in coordinating the crowds in an otherwise leaderless revolt, following the massively falsified presidential elections that returned Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to office.

Protasevich was arrested when Belarus scrambled a MiG-29 fighter to force down a commercial Ryanair flight and land in Belarus as it transited Belarusian airspace en route from Athens to Lithuania where Protasevich was living in exile. The incident caused an international outcry at the time and all flights from the EU were banned and EU airspace was closed to Belarusian flights as a result.

Protasevich has been stuck in Belarus ever since and has been in and out of jail as the Lukashenko flip flops on his status. He was released and appeared on state TV denouncing the protests on one occasion, but had bruises on his wrists suggesting that he had been tortured by police while in detention.  

Now he revealed on May 7 that he and his co-defendants in the Nexta case have been ordered to pay the Belarusian state approximately $7.6mn as compensation for their participation in the mass protests in 2020.

Protasevich said a court had ruled that Protasevich, Yan Rudzik, and Stsiapan Putsila, co-founders and editors-in-chief of the Nexta Telegram channel were loiable for damages caused by the mass protests that went on for months. Nexta has since been designated as an “extremist” organization by the regime.

"The total compensation demanded by the court was $7.6mn," Protasevich said. Rudzik and Putsila were convicted in absentia and remain in exile. Protasevich is the only senior member of Nexta that is still in Belarus.

“I have no idea what to do about this and how to go on living,” Protasevich said following the ruling, Kyiv Independent reports. “It's clear that I don't have even close to that kind of money. Even finding a job now is extremely difficult for me. I have three choices: to leave, to pay 50% of any income for the rest of my life, or to walk into the noose.”

Protasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison in May 2023 but was pardoned by Lukashenko two weeks later.

At least 161 Belarusians were charged in politically motivated cases in April, the Viasna Human Rights Center wrote in its report, the Kyiv Independent reports. Almost two thirds (64%) of the criminal cases were initiated on charges of “participating in actions that grossly violate public order,” from the mass anti-government protests in 2020.