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Belarus forces Ryanair plane to land to detain opposition blogger

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

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www.nbcnews.com

Belarus fighter jet forces Ryanair plane to land to detain opposition blogger

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the flight carrying Roman Protasevich, headed to Lithuania, to land in Minsk.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

5/23/21
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair flight carrying a key opposition blogger and headed for Lithuania to land in the Belarusian capital Minsk on Sunday and detained him on arrival, officials and rights activists said. Law enforcers detained activist Roman Protasevich, put on a wanted list after last year's mass street protests following an election in which Lukashenko had claimed a landslide victory. The aircraft, flying over Belarus from Athens to Vilnius, had almost reached Lithuania when it changed direction and was escorted to Minsk. The Belarus department for organized crime control also reported that Protasevich had been detained but then deleted the statement from its Telegram channel. Ryanair and the Lithuanian ministry of foreign affairs had no immediate comment. Lukashenko personally ordered the warplane to escort the Ryanair Boeing to Minsk, state news agency BelTA reported.

Protasevich is one of the founders of the opposition news service NEXTA, a Telegram channel that has become one of the main sources of news about demonstrations in Belarus. It is hostile to Lukashenko and helps to coordinate protests. Belarusian opposition politician Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, Lukashenko's main rival at the last election, said Belarus authorities "placed at risk safety of passengers on board and all of the civil aviation for the sake of punishment of the man who was an editor of Belarus's largest independent Telegram channel."
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From today on, European civilian aircraft controllers should direct passenger aircraft around Belarus. Civilian air carriers should refuse to service Minsk.

There must be a price to pay for such criminality.
 
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