Arrested journalist weeps on Belarus state television

The dissident Belarusian journalist and opposition activist who was arrested after his airline flight was diverted to Minsk wept Thursday in an interview on state television, saying he was fully cooperating with investigators and declaring that he respects the authoritarian president he opposed for years.

The broadcast was the second appearance in two days by 26-year-old Raman Pratasevich, whose arrest on May 23 was denounced in the West. By showing him on TV as cowed and repentant, Belarus could aim to counter that criticism. Pratasevich was a founder of a messaging app channel that was a key information conduit for opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, whose election to a sixth term last year set off months of protests, many of them attracting 100,000 people or more.