The United States condemned the forcible hijacking of a commercial aircraft to Belarus to arrest an opponent and demanded his immediate release.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “strongly condemned” the government of Belarus for intercepting and landing a Ryanair flight in Minsk on which an opposition activist was traveling from Greece to Lithuania.

The United States “strongly condemns the forcible hijacking of a flight between two EU member states and the deportation and arrest of journalist Raman Pratasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release, ”Blinken said in a statement.

“This shocking act by the Lukashenko regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including US citizens.”

“The first reports suggesting the involvement of Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military planes to escort the aircraft are deeply worrying and require further investigation,” he pointed.

Belarusian state television reported that Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old opposition blogger in exile in Poland, was arrested in Minsk after flight FR4978 was diverted from its Athens-Vilnius route, apparently for reasons of security.

After landing in Vilnius several hours later than expected, without Protasevich, some passengers said they saw the nervous blogger as the flight was diverted to Belarus.

Minsk Airport issued a statement earlier saying the plane was scheduled to make an emergency landing at 12:15 p.m. after a bomb threat.

President Alexander Lukashenko’s press service told Telegram he had ordered the flight to be diverted and a Mig-29 fighter accompanying the plane.

Blinken added that the United States supports “the Belarusian people in their aspirations for a free, democratic and prosperous future and supports their call for the regime to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

European Union (EU) leaders, who have urged Minsk to allow “all passengers” to continue their journey, will address the incident and “possible sanctions” at a summit on Monday, a spokesperson said. of the European Council.

Several countries of the bloc such as Germany and Lithuania denounced the events, which the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, qualified as “state terrorism” and for which he called for “immediate sanctions”.

France summoned the Belarusian ambassador to Paris. And the UK, which is no longer part of the EU, has also warned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that it risks “serious consequences”.

NATO, for its part, has called for an “international investigation” into this “serious and dangerous incident,” said its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.

Lukashenko faced a historic protest movement in 2020 that gathered tens of thousands of people for several weeks in Minsk and other cities in this country of about 9.5 million people. But the mobilization was running out of steam in the face of mass arrests, police violence that left at least four dead, continued judicial harassment and heavy prison sentences for activists and journalists.

In November, the Belarusian security services (KGB), heirs to the Soviet period, included Stepan Putilo, 26, the founder of Protasevich and Nexta, on a list of “individuals implicated in terrorist activities”.

Current Nexta editor-in-chief Tadeusz Giczan claimed Belarusian KGB agents were on board. “When the plane entered Belarusian airspace, KGB agents started a fight with Ryanair staff,” claiming there was a bomb on board, according to Giczan.

A spokeswoman for Lithuanian airports told AFP that she had received as the first explanation from Minsk airport a conflict between passengers and crew. According to images from the specialist site flightradar24, the Boeing was intercepted just before the border with Lithuania, an EU country.

Media Nexta, founded in 2015, played a key role in the recent wave of protests against the 2020 re-election of Lukashenko, in power since 1994, disseminating slogans and sharing photos and videos of the protests and repression.

The Belarusian opponent in exile in Lithuania, Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, immediately condemned the arrest of Protasevich and assured that the activist risked the “death penalty”.

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