Monday, May 24, 2021

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Global outrage after Belarus diverts Ryanair flight to detain opposition journalist


Issued on: 24/05/2021 
Text by: FRANCE 24



Belarus forced a passenger plane carrying a wanted opposition activist to divert and land in its capital, provoking a furious outcry from world leaders who described it as an "act of state terrorism" ahead of an EU summit Monday expected to toughen sanctions on Minsk.

Dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was detained on Sunday after Ryanair flight FR4978 was pulled from its Athens-to-Vilnius route and – accompanied by a Belarusian fighter jet – diverted to the capital city, state television reported.

Passengers described seeing the 26-year-old, who had been living in Poland, looking nervous as the flight was diverted to Minsk.

"He just turned to people and said he was facing the death penalty," Monika Simkiene, a 40-year-old Lithuanian, told AFP in Vilnius after landing – without Protasevich – several hours later.

Edvinas Dimsa, 37, said: "He was not screaming, but it was clear that he was very much afraid. It looked like if the window had been open, he would have jumped out of it."

The incident comes as the European Union is set to discuss toughening its existing sanctions against Belarus, imposed over the crackdown by the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko on opposition protesters, at a pre-planned summit on Monday.

"The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted, calling for Protasevich's release, and adding those responsible "must be sanctioned".

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounced Belarus's actions as "an act of state terrorism", while French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a "strong and united response" from the EU.

Lithuania and Latvia have called for international flights not to use Belarusian airspace.

Speaking on Irish radio on Monday, Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary described the incident as a "case of state-sponsored hijacking, (...) state-sponsored piracy".it


France 24's Dave Keating reports from Brussels



01:26

 

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The International Civil Aviation Organization – the UN's civil aviation agency – said the forced landing "could be in contravention of the Chicago Convention", which protects nations' airspace sovereignty.

Minsk's airport had released a statement earlier saying the plane had to make an emergency landing there at 1215 GMT following a bomb scare.

"The plane was checked, no bomb was found and all passengers were sent for another security search," said Nexta, a Belarus opposition channel on the Telegram messaging app, which Protasevich previously edited.

Lukashenko's press service said on its own Telegram channel the president had given the order to divert the flight and had ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to accompany the plane.

It comes as Belarus authorities intensify their crackdown on the opposition following historic protests that gripped the ex-Soviet country after last year's disputed presidential election.

'Absolutely unacceptable'


The United States "strongly condemned" the arrest, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for Protasevich's release.

"This shocking act perpetrated by the Lukashenka regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including US citizens," he said in a statement, using an alternative spelling of the Belarusian leader's name.

He added on Twitter: "We demand an international investigation and are coordinating with our partners on next steps."

 

European leaders reacted with fury. In Athens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted: "The forced landing of a commercial plane to detain a journalist is an unprecedented, shocking act" it 'Calls for stronger sanctions against Belarus'

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda described Belarus's actions as "abhorrent" and prosecutors said they had opened a criminal investigation for the hijacking of a plane.



The government in Ireland, where Ryanair is headquartered, described the incident as "absolutely unacceptable", while NATO called it "dangerous" and demanded an international investigation.

Since last August's disputed election, Belarusians have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of Lukashenko, who has ruled for over two decades.

Protasevich and Nexta founder Stepan Putilo, 22, were added to Belarus's list of "individuals involved in terrorist activity" last year.

The two – both now based in Poland – were accused of causing mass unrest, an offence punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

Belarus also labelled the Nexta Telegram channels and its logo "extremist" and ordered them blocked.

With close to two million subscribers on Telegram, Nexta Live and its sister channel Nexta are prominent opposition channels and helped mobilise protesters.

"It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of secret services to capture the plane in order to detain activist and blogger Roman Protasevich," exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Telegram.

The opposition says that Tikhanovskaya, who fled to neighbouring Lithuania after the election, was the true winner of last year's presidential vote.

KGB involved?

A member of the Nexta team, Tadeusz Giczan, tweeted that representatives of the Belarusian security agency had been on Protasevich's flight.

"Then when the plane had entered Belarus airspace, the KGB officers initiated a fight with the Ryanair crew insisting there's an IED onboard," he said.

A spokeswoman for state company Lithuanian Airports, Lina Beisine, told AFP that Minsk airport had said the flight was redirected "due to a conflict between a member of the crew and the passengers".

The Belarusian state aviation agency said on Monday that its air traffic controllers had issued "recommendations" to the crew of a Ryanair plane that was unexpectedly diverted to Minsk, but had not forced it to land using threats, the RIA news agency reported.

"This looks quite a lot like the kind of thing we have seen in the past from Russia," said FRANCE 24's regional correspondent Gulliver Cragg.

"It looks like the kind of story that they almost don’t want you to believe; they just want to show how brazen they are," Cragg added.

In a statement – that did not mention Protasevich – Ryanair said the flight's crew had been notified by Belarus air traffic control of "a potential security threat on board" and were instructed to divert to Minsk, the "nearest" airport.

The EU and the United States have sanctioned Lukashenko and dozens of officials and businessmen tied to his regime with asset freezes and visa bans.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)


Belarus: EU calls for international probe into forced landing of Ryanair plane

The EU urged a probe after a Ryanair passenger jet was forced to land in Minsk — in an apparent bid to arrest an activist blogger on board. EU leaders are set to discuss additional sanctions against Belarus.



The Ryanair plane lands in the Lithuanian capital after its diversion to Minsk

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell on Monday called for an international investigation after Belarus forced a Ryanair passenger jet to land in Minsk, in an apparent effort to arrest an activist journalist.

"In carrying out this coercive act, the Belarusian authorities have jeopardized the safety of passengers and crew," Borrell said in a statement issued on Monday.

"An international investigation into this incident must be carried out to ascertain any breach of international aviation rules," the statement went on.

The Belarusian Transport Ministry on Monday announced it had set up a commission to carry out its own investigation into the forced landing and would publish the results soon, according to a report by the Russian RIA news agency.

EU to discuss incident at summit

The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said EU leaders will discuss the incident at an EU summit beginning on Monday, adding that the affair would not remain "without consequences."

He called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release the detained passenger.

An EU spokesman said the leaders would discuss "possible sanctions" on Belarus. High-level officials in the country have already been sanctioned by the bloc over the brutal repression of the opposition, protesters and journalists following disputed elections in August 2020. More than 34,000 people have been arrested in the country since August, and thousands have been brutally mistreated.

DW's Bernd Riegert, who is following the summit, said that "the most likely sanctions are targeted sanctions, or smart sanctions, as they call it here in Brussels." These include asset freezes and restrictions on travel for sanctioned individuals, he said, along with cutting Belarus off from the SWIFT banking system internationally.

"All EU leaders are on the same page, even the direct neighboring countries like Poland and the Baltics. It seems as though Belarus has crossed a red line," he said.


What happened?

On Sunday, a Ryanair jet flying from Athens to Lithuania was intercepted by a Belarusian fighter jet and diverted to Minsk International Airport after being told a bomb was on board.

No explosives were found on the aircraft, but Raman Pratasevich, a 26-year-old former editor from the Minsk-critical Telegram channel Nexta, was allegedly taken into custody. Pratasevich is a known critic of Belarus' long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko and his government.

After hours of delays, the plane was later allowed to fly on to Lithuania — but at least four people, including Pratasevich's Russian girlfriend, did not reboard the plane.

In an interview with DW, an adviser to opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Franak Viacorka, said Pratasevich was now "in the hands of the cruelest regime in Europe" and voiced concern for his safety.

What does Ryanair say?

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told Irish radio station Newstalk that the forced landing "was a case of state-sponsored hijacking ... state-sponsored piracy" carried out to detain a dissident journalist.

O'Leary said his company believed that some Belarusian secret service agents had been on the plane as well.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney echoed O'Leary's remarks, calling the incident "aviation piracy, state-sponsored."

He told state broadcaster RTE that sanctions on Belarus with a "real edge" were needed in response.

The low-cost airline Ryanair is headquartered in the Irish capital, Dublin.



Belarus reporter said 'death penalty awaits me here' — witness

Journalist Raman Pratasevich might face the death penalty after Belarusian authorities forced his plane to land in Minsk. A passenger on the flight described Pratasevich's reaction.


Pratasevich was the top editor in a key opposition media outlet

Raman Pratasevich, a 26-year-old Belarusian national, was "upset" after realizing the Ryanair fllght he was on was unexpectedly landing in Minsk, a witness told Radio Free Europe's Belarus department on Sunday.

"After a sudden turn of the plane, one guy [Pratasevich] started panicking, grabbing his head," the source, another passenger on the flight said. "There was no conflict up until the plane turned, no falling out, nothing."
Belarus claims a bomb scare

According to pro-government media in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko himself ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to be scrambled and intercept the Ryanair jet over an alleged bomb scare. No bomb was found on the pl


Watch video 03:51 Belarus diverts plane to arrest opposition figure

Instead, Belarusian authorities detained the exiled reporter Pratasevich, who had been traveling from Greece to Lithuania. Pratasevich faces criminal charges in Belarus, including inciting hatred against the government. He is also on the nation's list of "individuals involved in terrorist activity." Belarus opposition leaders say he could face the death penalty in his native country.

Reporter's luggage 'thrown out' onto the runway


Upon landing in Minsk, security forces took the passengers out and had sniffer dog teams inspect their belongings, the passenger told Radio Free Europe.

Pratasevich's luggage was "thrown out on the runway" and he was taken aside.

"We asked him what was going on." the passenger said. "He told us who he was and added: 'A death penalty awaits me here.' He was a bit calmer, but trembling."

Eventually, he was taken away by the military, according to the source.

Watch video 03:49 Journalist Hanna Liubakova: It’s not safe in Belarus for Raman Pratasevich


Pratasevich previously served as the editor-in-chief of opposition news outlet NEXTA, which the Belarus authorities have labeled as extremist.
Pratasevich suspected he was followed in Athens

In a separate interview to Deutsche Welle, an aide to opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Franak Viacorka said Pratasevich was in touch with him before boarding the plane and told him he suspected he was being followed.

"This morning I was in touch with Raman… he shared [with me] concerns that someone was following him in Athens airport," the politician said.

NEXTA also shared texts sent out by Pratasevich from Athens, in which he described a suspicious Russian-speaking man who seemed to try to get a photo of his travel documents.

"The great thing is, that he was the next in line to get his documents checked, and he just turned and walked away… at the gate," Pratasevich wrote, describing the man as "middle-aged, built, balding" and carrying a leather suitcase.

Talking to DW, Viacorka described the 26-year-old reporter as a "personal enemy of Lukashenko," saying that Pratasevich was "posting videos and pictures from a protest about torture in prisons, about the conditions in jails. He was one of the most prominent figures speaking about the horrible violations of human rights."

"I think what we saw today, it was their revenge, personal revenge of Lukashenko against Raman and his principled position right now," he told DW.




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