A Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania was redirected to Belarus for many hours on Sunday, with activists stating it was made to arrest a dissident reporter on board. European countries responded with insult, blaming Belarus of “state terrorism”.The ex-editor of the Nexta group, Roman Protasevich, was arrested before the plane was permitted to recommence its flight. Belarus media said a MiG-29 accompanied the jet to Minsk because of a bomb scare but no explosives were discovered. The plane finally arrived in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, its original destination, at 21:25 local time (18:25 GMT), more than seven hours later its programmed arrival. The passengers said they had been provided no information about the cause for the unexpected deviation to Minsk. One said Mr. Protasevich looked “super scared. I looked directly into his eyes and it was very sad”.
Another, Monika Simkiene, told: “He just turned to people and said he was facing the death penalty.”There have already been requests for the EU and Nato to negotiate.UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab cautioned the “outlandish action” would have “serious implications”.Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was hit by Alexander Lukashenko in presidential ballots last year generally condemned as rigged, was among those necessitating Mr. Protasevich’s release. Since August’s polls, 66-year-old Mr. Lukashenko, who has governed the nation since 1994, has cracked down on dissenting opinions. Many opposition characters have been captured or, like Ms. Tikhanovskaya, escaped into a fugitive. Flight FR4978 was en route from Athens to Vilnius when it returned east to Minsk shortly before it arrived at the Lithuanian boundary. Greece and Lithuania placed the number of passengers on board at 171.
In a report, Ryanair said that the crew had been “notified by Belarus (Air Traffic Control) of a potential security threat onboard and were notified to redirect to the nearest airport, Minsk”.The flight path, evident on the Flightradar24 website, hints the plane was nearer to Vilnius than Minsk when it turned. Ryanair said checks in Minsk found “nothing untoward” and the aircraft left Minsk at 20:50 local time.” We apologize sincerely to all affected passengers for this regrettable delay which was outside Ryanair’s control,” it added. The Ryanair statement did not remark Mr. Protasevich. Nexta was the first to reveal the news of his detention. It said the plane and its passengers were explored, then Mr. Protasevich was taken away.
Belta, the state-owned news bureau in Belarus, said Mr. Lukashenko had privately provided the order for the plane to land in Minsk following the bomb warning and allowed despatching the MiG-29 fighter jet. It has been fierce and it is increasing. The US ambassador to Belarus, Julie Fisher, tweeted that it was “abhorrent” Mr. Lukashenko had forged a bomb threat and sent fighter jets to capture a journalist. European Council chairman Charles Michel said EU leaders would consider “this unprecedented incident” on Monday at a Council summit and it would not “prevail without consequences”.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told this was a “serious and critical incident”.Both Latvia and Lithuania said the airspace over Belarus should be identified as threatening, with Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics stating it should be closed to all international flights. The UN’s agency for civil aviation, ICAO, said it was concerned about an “apparent forced landing” which could be “in violation of the Chicago Convention” which sets out the laws on airspace and aircraft safety. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: “Hijacking a civilian plane is an unprecedented act of state terrorism that cannot go unpunished.”
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