Detained Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich appeared in a press conference on Monday, where he claimed he was not beaten while in custody.

"Everything is fine with me. Nobody beat me, nobody touched me," Protasevich said. "I understand the damage I have caused not only to the state but also to the country. Now I want to do everything in my power to rectify this situation."

Protasevich sat alongside uniformed officials, saying he had not been made to cooperate with the authorities and that he was in good health after being arrested last month.

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Belarus authorities have said Protasevich is an extremist who has facilitated violence and also maintain that televised confessions by members of the opposition were made voluntarily.

Franak Viacorka, the senior adviser to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, condemned the event on Twitter. "No matter what he says, let's not forget: He is a hostage. And the regime is using him as a trophy," he said.

"This is not a press conference but a scene of either Kafka or Orwell." 

This was not the first time Protasevich has appeared on camera since he was detained on May 23 after his Ryanair flight was intercepted by a Belarusian fighter jet. 

Earlier this month, Protasevich appeared in a 90-minute interview with ONT, the country's state-run channel. During the interview, he confessed to organizing protests, put his face in his hands and cried.

However, that interview was extremely controversial and many claimed his confession was forced. At the time, his father said it was the result of "abuse, torture and threats."

And Steffen Seibert, a German government spokesman, called that interview a "disgrace."

"That is a disgrace for the broadcaster showing [the interview] and for the Belarusian leadership, which is once again showing its contempt for democracy and, it must be said, for humanity."

The UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also called it "disturbing." Since Protasevich's arrest, there has been an online campaign to discredit the 26-year-old. Including one story that claimed Protasevich was a neo-Nazi. It has since been disproved by AFP.

Earlier, Minsk said it would send out requests for legal assistance in the Ryanair case, calling Western media reports "incomplete and unverified" and "designed to manipulate the public opinion to suit their own interests."

"We are probably most interested in establishing the truth about the incident. To establish the truth means to find the person or the persons who sent that message [bomb alert] and who were interested in such a situation. The message was sent through the ProtonMail service located in the Swiss Confederation," said Dmitry Gora, chairman of the Investigative Committee of Belarus, on Thursday, as reported by Belarus media BelTA.

"We have not received any response yet. Almost a year and a half have passed. We hope that things will be different this time," he stressed.