Families in anguish over pair held in Belarus

The families of a dissident journalist and his girlfriend, held after a plane was diverted to Belarus, have spoken of their concern for their safety. Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega are now being in detention. I'm calling on the whole international community to save him," said his mother Natalia Protasevich.

A video of Ms Sapega was released on Tuesday as authorities said they would hold her for at least two months. In the video, Ms Sapega says she edits a Telegram channel which publishes personal information of Belarusian policemen.

However, it is likely she is speaking under duress.

A lawyer for Ms Sapega has said that she will be detained for at least two months. Ms Sapega and Mr Protasevich were detained on Sunday, when a plane flying from Athens to Vilnius, in neighbouring Lithuania, was diverted to land in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.

Western countries accuse Belarus of hijacking the Ryanair plane that was rerouted over a supposed bomb threat. Several European airlines have said that they will not fly over Belarus as a result.

"Today Sophia was interrogated. She was accused of committing a criminal offense. A preventive measure was chosen - detention for a period of two months," her lawyer, Alexander Filanovich, told the BBC's Russian service on Tuesday.

Ms Sapega is now in a KGB pre-trial detention centre in the Belarusian capital, he said.

In the video, Ms Sapega states that she is the editor of the Black Book of Belarus Telegram channel, which publishes the personal data of the country's security forces.

But Ms Sapega's mother cast doubt on how freely her daughter is speaking in the video, released by a pro-government Telegram channel.

"Even my friends called me and said ... this is an unusual manner for her," she told the BBC. "She sways, eyes in the sky - as if afraid of forgetting something."

"I enlarged [the video] as much as possible - it seems that [she looks] okay. We are now packing warm clothes, we will go to Minsk. I want to try to give her a parcel - I saw she only had a thin jacket."

It comes after Belarus authorities on Monday released video of Mr Protasevich that appears to have been recorded under duress.

He faces charges related to his reporting of last August's disputed election and subsequent crackdown on mass opposition protests, and has said he fears the death penalty after being placed on a terrorism list.