The United States demanded the release of the Belarusian opponent arrested by Minsk following the interception of the plane where he was, before a meeting of the European Council on Monday which will discuss “possible sanctions”.
The United States “strongly condemns the forcible hijacking of a flight between two EU member states, and the subsequent exfiltration and arrest of journalist Roman Protassevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, an organization attached to the UN, has argued that the forced landing “could be a violation of the Chicago Convention”, which protects the sovereignty of nations’ airspace.
Roman Protassevich, 26, former editor of the influential Belarusian opposition media Nexta, was arrested Sunday afternoon following the emergency landing at Minsk airport of flight FR4978, a Boeing 737-800 on the Athens-Vilnius route.
In the early evening, the aircraft was finally able to resume its flight to Lithuania, a Baltic country member of the European Union, where it landed several hours behind schedule – without Mr. Protassevich.
“He wasn’t screaming, but it was obvious that he was very scared. It looked like if the window had been opened, he would have jumped,” said Edvinas Dimsa, another passenger on the plane. “He just turned to the people and said he risked the death penalty,” said another on board, Monika Simkiene.
This is also what the Belarusian opposition figure in exile in Lithuania, Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, put forward on Twitter, a “death penalty” that Belarus is the last in Europe to apply.
EU “possible sanctions”
Meeting at a summit Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, the heads of state and government of the Twenty-Seven will discuss “possible sanctions” against Belarus, in addition to those already targeting it and which have led its President Alexander Lukashenko to come closer of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The EU has already castigated “completely unacceptable action” on the part of Minsk. The confirmation of the journalist’s arrest has indeed sparked an uproar, with angry statements from Germany, France or the United Kingdom. NATO has called for an international investigation.
Countries neighboring Belarus, Poland spoke of an “act of state terrorism” and Lithuania, which granted refugee status to Roman Protassevich, denounced an “abject act”. Lithuania and Latvia have also called on international flights to no longer pass through Belarusian airspace.
.@vonderleyen “The scandalous & illegal actions of the Belarusian regime will have consequences.
Those responsible for the hijacking of the flight #Ryanair must be sanctioned.
Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately. “Https://t.co/IC90OZGxeV
– European Commission ???????? (@UEFrance) May 23, 2021
The chain of events still contains gray areas.
Minsk Airport, quoted by the official Belta news agency, initially said that the bomb threat that resulted in an emergency landing around 12:15 GMT was found to be “wrong” after a search of the device.
It was Alexander Lukashenko who had personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter to intercept it after this alert, his press service said.
Current Nexta editor-in-chief Tadeusz Giczan said that “when the plane entered Belarusian airspace,” KGB agents, claiming a bomb was inside, “set off a fight with Ryanair staff “. “The plane was checked, no bombs were found, and all passengers were sent for a security check,” Nexta said.
Contacted by AFP, a spokeswoman for Lithuanian airports said that she had received as a first explanation from the Minsk airport a conflict between passengers and the crew.
Breathlessness of the protest
Last summer and fall, the Belarusian president was confronted with a historic protest movement that gathered tens of thousands of people for several weeks in Minsk and other cities.
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.
In November, the Belarusian security services (KGB), inherited from the Soviet period, had listed the names of Mr. Protassevich, and the founder of Nexta, Stepan Poutilo, on the list of “individuals involved in terrorist activities”.
Founded in 2015, Nexta (“Someone” in Belarusian) is a media outlet that played a key role in the recent wave of protests against the 2020 re-election of President Lukashenko, who has held the post since 1994.
(With AFP)
–
