Belarus sent a fighter jet on Sunday, May 23, to intercept an airliner aboard an opposition activist who, according to the latter, was arrested on his arrival in Minsk by the security services of the regime. Alexander Lukashenko.
Opposition media Nexta claimed that its former editor-in-chief Roman Protassevich was arrested after the aircraft, a Ryanair Boeing 737, made an emergency landing at the airport in Belarus' capital. from Athens and with destination Vilnius in Lithuania.
The Belarusian Interior Ministry initially confirmed this arrest on Telegram, before deleting this message, noted an AFP journalist.
According to the authorities, the plane deviated from its trajectory because of a "bomb threat".
Nexta claimed that the emergency landing was sparked by a "fight" started by Belarusian security agents, who were on board and who claimed that an explosive device was in the aircraft.
Minsk airport, quoted by the official Belta news agency, claimed that the bomb threat was "wrong" after a search of the Boeing.
President Alexander Lukashenko, meanwhile, personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to intercept the plane after the alert, his press service said.
Last summer and autumn, Alexander Lukashenko was confronted with a historic protest movement that brought together tens of thousands of people for several weeks in Minsk and other cities, a huge mobilization for a country of barely 9.5 million inhabitants.
But the protest gradually faltered in the face of mass arrests, police violence that left at least four people dead, ongoing judicial harassment and heavy prison sentences imposed on activists and journalists.
"Fight with the KGB"
Last November, the Belarusian security services (KGB), inherited from the Soviet period, had placed Roman Protassevich and the founder of Nexta, Stepan Poutilo, on the list of "individuals involved in terrorist activities".
Current Nexta editor-in-chief Tadeusz Giczan said Belarusian KGB agents were on board the aircraft.
"When the plane entered Belarusian airspace, KGB officers started a fight with Ryanair staff," Tadeusz Giczan said, officers claiming a bomb was on board.
Contacted by AFP, a spokeswoman for Lithuanian airports said that she had received as a first explanation from Minsk airport a conflict between passengers and the crew.
Roman Protassevich is the former editor-in-chief of Nexta, a media outlet that played a key role in the recent wave of protests against the 2020 re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held the post since 1994.
Founded in 2015, Nexta ("Someone" in Belarusian) had notably coordinated rallies across Belarus, broadcasting slogans and sharing photos and videos of rallies and violence.
"Despicable act"
The activist's arrest was immediately condemned by Belarusian opposition figure in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
On Twitter, she assured that the regime had "forced" the plane of Roman Protassevich who, according to her, "incurs the death penalty".
The regime forced the landing @Ryanair plane in Minsk to arrest journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich.
He faces the death penalty in Belarus.
We demand immediate release of Raman, @ICAO investigation, and sanctions against Belarus.
pic.twitter.com/ondPBd0kU9
- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (@Tsihanouskaya) May 23, 2021
The former Soviet Republic of Belarus is the last country in Europe to apply the death penalty.
Germany demanded an "immediate explanation" after the plane's diversion.
"We need an immediate explanation from the government of Belarus on the rerouting inside the European Union of a Ryanair flight to Minsk and the alleged arrest of a journalist," he said. Senior German Foreign Ministry official Miguel Berger said on Twitter.
The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, for his part denounced on Twitter "an unprecedented event", accusing the Belarusian regime of having been behind "this despicable act".
"I demand the emergency release of Roman Protassevich!", He continued, calling on NATO and the European Union (EU), of which Lithuania is a member, to "immediately react to the threat that made the Belarusian regime run to international civil aviation, ”Gitanas Nauseda said in a separate statement released by his office.
"I will talk about it at the EU summit in Brussels" next week, he said.
The current repression in Belarus has earned Minsk a battery of Western sanctions that have led Alexander Lukashenko to move closer to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR