Belarus scrambles fighter to force airliner to land, arrests Roman Protasevich
MOSCOW - Authorities in Belarus scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist who was on board, drawing criticism from across Europe.
In the dramatic incident, a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet
escorted Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania. The
plane was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where authorities
detained journalist Roman Protasevich.
Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was
diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace.
After several hours in Minsk, the plane took off again for Vilnius, a top EU
official said.
EU member state Lithuania, where Protasevich is based, urged
the European Union and NATO to respond. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg
said in a Tweet that the incident was serious and dangerous and required an
international investigation.
Poland's prime minister called it a "reprehensible act
of state terrorism" and said he was pushing for a summit of EU leaders
this week to discuss immediate sanctions against Minsk.
Germany called for an immediate explanation, and Ursula von
der Leyen, the head of the EU's executive European Commission, said Belarus's
action was "utterly unacceptable".
British foreign minister Dominic Raab said there would be
serious implications for what he called "outlandish action."
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who like Protasevich
operates from Lithuania, called on the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) to kick Belarus out of the organisation.
The incident is certain to worsen already dire relations
between the West and Belarus, which has been tightly controlled since 1994 by
President Alexander Lukashenko.
Opponents accuse him of rigging a presidential election in
his own favour last year and of then cracking down violently on the opposition.
He denies electoral fraud.
Ryanair said in a statement that the plane's crew was
notified by Belarus of a potential security threat on board and were instructed
to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk.
The plane landed safely, passengers were offloaded and
security checks were made by local authorities, it said, saying it expected the
aircraft to resume its journey later on Sunday.
Protasevich, 26, worked for an online opposition news
service NEXTA, a Telegram channel that broadcast footage of mass protests
against Lukashenko last year at a time when it was hard for foreign media to do
so.
Protasevich, who now works for a different Telegram channel
called Belamova and who describes himself on Twitter ironically as the first
"journalist-terrorist" in history, is based in Lithuania.
He is wanted in Belarus on extremism charges and stands
accused of organising mass riots and of inciting social hatred, allegations he
denies.
Belarusian news agency BelTA reported that Lukashenko had
personally ordered the warplane to escort the Ryanair plane to Minsk. No
explosives were found, it said.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for an
international response.
"I call on NATO and EU allies to immediately react to
the threat posed to international civil aviation by the Belarus regime. The
international community must take immediate steps that this does not
repeat," Nauseda said.
Lithuanian presidential adviser Asta Skaisgiryte said the
operation to force the plane carrying around 170 people from 12 countries to
land seemed to be pre-planned.
The Belarusian department for organised crime control
reported that Protasevich had been detained before deleting the statement from
its Telegram channel.
Around 35,000 people have been detained in Belarus since
August, human rights groups say. Dozens have received jail terms. Authorities
say that more than 1,000 criminal cases have been launched.
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