In Belarus, a prominent Belarusian dissident journalist, Raman Pratasevich, was arrested on Sunday after the airplane in which he was travelling was diverted to Minsk National Airport in Belarus after a bomb threat. This has European and other Western officials furious, denouncing the Belarusian authoritarian government, saying it was a hijacking operation by the government.
Ryanair Flight 4978, had already begun its descent into the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius when the pilot was asked to divert his aircraft to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Enroute to Minsk, the Belarusian dissident journalist, Raman Pratasevich, already knew he would be arrested by Belarusian police at a moment’s notice, and would face charges that could keep him 15 years in prison.
I saw this Belarusian guy with his girlfriend sitting right behind us. He freaked out when the pilot said the plane is diverted to Minsk. He said there’s a death penalty awaiting him there. We sat for an hour after the landing. Then they started releasing passengers and took those two. We did not see them again, this passenger, Marius Rutkauskas, said after the plane arrived in Vilnius following several hours in Minsk.
Flight tracker sites revealed the plane, which was carrying at least 100 passengers, was about 10 kilometers from the Lithuanian border when it was asked to be diverted.
Other passengers on board the flight was later flown to Vilnius.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the president himself ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the airliner after he was informed of the bomb threat in Vilnius. But contradictory statements about the reason why the plane landed in Minsk were made as Ryanair said Belarusian air traffic controllers instructed the plane to divert to the capital city of Minsk, which is completely different from the government’s statement.
Sure enough, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda was furious, denouncing the Belarusian authoritarian President’s move. As such, he called the incident a “state-sponsored terror act”, trying to hit Lukashenko where it hurts. He also said the European Council would discuss the case on Monday and that he would consider banning flights from Belarus from European Union airports. He is also considering serious sanctions against Lukashenko’s government.
The dissident arrested today is a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app’s Nexta channel, which Belarus last year declared as extremist after it was used to help organise protests across Belarus against Lukashenko, the authoritarian president.
Meantime, no explosives were found on board the plane which was diverted. This has Lithuania fuming mad, as the country, as well as some other Western nations, considered the flight diversion “a hijacking operation” and a crackdown on freedom of expression. Lithuania’s foreign minister said in a statement, Belarusian airspace is all but unsafe for any commercial flight, and it should be deemed this not only by the European Union, but also by the international community.
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