Ryanair flight carrying wanted Belarusian journalist forced to land in Minsk

[Nevilledog]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/belarus-ryanair-roman-pratasevic-journalist/2021/05/23/01b2e28a-bbc2-11eb-922a-c40c9774bc48_story.html

MOSCOW — Authorities in Belarus ordered a Ryanair flight that took off in Athens and was headed to Lithuania to land in Minsk over a purported bomb threat, which the Belarusian opposition is calling just a pretext to arrest an activist on board.

The news service for the airport in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, said the plane was diverted because of a bomb scare. State media said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered the plane to land with a MiG-29 fighter escort.

The airport news service told state media that a bomb was not found on the plane, which had 123 passengers.

Roman Protasevich, who ran the popular opposition social media Telegram channel Nexta from outside of Belarus, was detained upon the plane’s landing. The flight was headed to Vilnius, Lithuania.

He faces up to 15 years in prison after he and the creator of Nexta, which exposed Belarusian police brutality during anti-government demonstrations last year, were added to a list of individuals purportedly involved in terrorist activities in November. Nexta and its sister channel, Nexta Live, have close to 2 million subscribers.

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