Global scandal: Belarus intercepts an international flight and arrested a passenger

The former editor-in-chief of the Nexta telegram channel, which covered protests in Belarus, Roman Protasevich, was detained in Minsk. He was removed from the plane, which was flying from Athens to Vilnius and urgently landed in Minsk after a report of “mining,” writes Air force.

Intercepted flight after liberation and landing in Vilnius. Photo: Shutterstock

“Roman Protasevich was detained. He was flying on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius,” the Viasna human rights center reported on Sunday, May 23.

Many European leaders, politicians and diplomats demanded the immediate release of the plane and passengers, as well as an international investigation into the incident.

The Greek Foreign Ministry called the forced landing of the plane that took off from Athens an act of state aviation piracy, and the Prime Minister of Poland called for a ban on flights of Belarusian airlines over the territory of the European Union.

The consequences of the Ryanair incident and possible sanctions against the Belarusian authorities will be discussed at the EU summit on Monday 24 May.

Aviation security experts said the interception of a passenger liner and its forced landing in order to arrest one of the passengers is unprecedented.

The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus in its telegram channel confirmed the arrest of Protasevich at the Minsk airport.

Earlier, the press service of the Minsk National Airport stated that a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius was urgently landed in Minsk due to reports of mining. Later they clarified that the information about mining was not confirmed, however, investigative actions were carried out with the plane and everyone on board.

The Belarusian edition Onliner notes that the passengers had to leave the plane and go through a second inspection.

Ryanair, operating the flight, said the Belarusian air traffic control service informed the crew about the threat on board the aircraft. Ryanair notified the relevant national and European aviation security agencies of this regrettable delay caused by circumstances beyond the airline's control, the airline said in a statement.

“Nothing untoward was found during the inspection, and local authorities gave the plane and passengers permission to take off after approximately five hours in Minsk,” the airline said.

At about 21:30 Moscow time, the Ryanair flight landed in Vilnius.

Lithuanian law enforcement agencies are conducting a survey of passengers in order to understand what exactly happened on board. As reported by the Delfi agency, the General Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania has launched an investigation into the hijacking of the plane and the treatment of people prohibited by international law.

As Mogilev Online writes, Protasevich managed to report that back in Athens he noticed interest in himself from a Russian-speaking middle-aged man. At first he tried to film Protasevich’s documents, and then he turned around and left, although he was next in line to have his documents checked.

“It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of the special services to hijack a plane with the aim of detaining activist and blogger Roman Protasevich,” said one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Later, the Austrian newspaper Der Standart reported with reference to Franak Vechorka, an adviser to Tihanovskaya, that in addition to Protasevich, another Russian woman was detained in Minsk. As Vechorka explained to the BBC, we can talk about Sophia Sapega, Protasevich's girlfriend.

23-year-old Sapega is a Russian citizen. She is currently studying for a master’s degree at the European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius in the program “International Law and Law of the European Union,” EHU official representative Maxim Milta told the BBC.

He also confirmed that she was detained in Minsk. After the arrest, she did not get in touch, he added.

“The European Humanities University is making every effort to release Sofia Sapieha as soon as possible,” Milta said.

Sapega was born in Russia (on her pages on social networks it is indicated that her hometown is Vladivostok - BBC note), but lived almost all her life in Belarus, her classmate, who asked for anonymity, told the BBC.

According to him, Sapega had a temporary residence permit in Lithuania - since she entered the private Lithuanian university Yerevan State University and was supposed to complete her master's degree there this year. Sapega met Protasevich about six months ago, her classmate said.

“I wasn’t interested in politics, but I was worried about the fate of my native countries - Belarus and Russia. I am sure that Sofa’s detention has only one reason - to put pressure on Roman. Since there are objectively no other reasons,” he suggested. According to him, she is not an activist.

The Belarusian opposition demands to recognize the forced landing at the Minsk airport of the plane on which the journalist and blogger Roman Protasevich was flying as an act of terrorism. And temporarily stop air traffic over the territory of Belarus. https://t.co/aQ2bEQthuO pic.twitter.com/F9IhhPEwLy

- Radio Liberty (@SvobodaRadio) May 23, 2021

"At the direction of the head of state"

Flight FR4978's deviation from its intended route was recorded on the Flightradar124 website, which shows the plane turning southeast towards Minsk shortly before reaching the Lithuanian border.

The telegram channel “Pul Pervogo”, close to the administration of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, reported that the situation with the plane was under the control of the head of state.

According to the report, on the instructions of the commander-in-chief, a fighter was raised to escort the passenger plane. Later this message was removed from the site.

The Ministry of Defense of Belarus stated that after receiving information about the presence of an aircraft with a possible mine in the airspace of the country, the air defense forces on duty were put on alert number one, and the aircraft, carrying over 120 passengers (according to other sources - 171), was sent to the airport Minsk was accompanied by a MiG-29 fighter.

Later, the Investigative Committee of Belarus announced the initiation of a criminal case on the fact of a false report about the mining of an aircraft.

According to the passenger, when the news of the landing in Minsk, Roman Protasevich began to hand over things, including a laptop and a telephone, to the girl.

Video: Delfi pic.twitter.com/D6l1Ipv39k

- Mediazone. Belarus (@mediazona_by) May 23, 2021

An unprecedented case

Although reports of the mining of passenger airliners are not uncommon, as is the rise in the air of fighters to escort aircraft in case of suspicion of their capture, experts call the case of the forced landing of a Ryanair flight unique.

Russian aviation expert Vadim Lukashevich draws attention to the fact that flight FR4978 was forced to turn back under the threat of a fighter jet, when there were only 10 minutes of flight left to Vilnius airport (73 km), and only 30 km to the Lithuanian border.

Based on Flightradar data, the expert points out that the pilots of previous flights always began to descend from the cruising level 177 kilometers to Vilnius, but this time the pilots went towards Lithuania without reducing and slowing down and turned back just two minutes before crossing the Lithuanian border. According to Lukashevich, this means that the pilots were actually leaving the pursuing fighter.

“I am absolutely sure that the crew of the passenger airliner turned around only after receiving a notification from the Belarusian fighter that in case of disobedience, it would open fire before the passenger aircraft left Belarusian airspace,” the expert wrote on his Facebook page.

On the subject: US bans entry to 43 Belarusian citizens supporting Lukashenka's regime

First class pilot, active Aeroflot pilot Andrei Litvinov called what happened with flight FR4978 wild.

“If there is a bomb on board, then the decision at which airport to land urgently is made by the pilot of the aircraft based on weather conditions, whether this airport is suitable for landing this type of aircraft, and whether the runway is available for landing. It doesn’t matter which country he flies over, he chooses the airport based on these and other parameters,” the pilot said in a conversation with a correspondent of the BBC Russian Service.

“Once again, the decision is made by the commander; he does not need fighters to help him. He also cannot be ordered to land at this or that airport; this is entirely the decision of the commander,” added Andrei Litvinov.

As Andrei Litvinov explains, the pilot receives a message about a bomb on board either through the dispatcher, with whom the FSB contacts, or through a telegram from the Mission Control Center. According to him, lifting a fighter into the air means intercepting an aircraft, and such a measure is applied in exceptional cases.

“I had a case where a drunken rowdy on board said that he was a terrorist. In such situations, the pilot reports the hijacking of the ship to the ground, and then fighter jets are sent to the aircraft to prevent a major tragedy: for example, if a terrorist forces the pilot to fly the plane into residential areas. They are needed to shoot down a plane in the air if the situation gets completely out of control and the pilot refuses to land. I was escorted by two fighter jets to land, and this is a huge stress for both the pilot and the passengers,” said the pilot.

According to Gleb Bogush, Associate Professor of the Department of International Law at the Higher School of Economics, according to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, any interception of an aircraft and its landing is possible only if there are grounds and under no circumstances should the life and health of passengers be endangered.

In the event of a threat, the state in whose airspace the aircraft is located has the right to intercept it and force it to land. Nothing, in principle, prohibits the raising of fighters into the air to accompany such an aircraft for security purposes, the expert argues. However, he adds, the version of the threat does not explain why the dispatchers sent the plane with a significant deviation from the course to Minsk, and did not land it at the nearest airport in Vilnius, where the plane was already heading.

“According to the annex to the convention, the purpose of interception is to identify the aircraft, adjust the route or prevent a real threat,” Gleb Bogush told the BBC. “So, further actions after landing according to the convention were possible only to prevent such a threat.”

“Of course, the Belarusian authorities violated international law,” the expert concluded.

The route of the plane on which Protasevich flew, according to the flightradar service pic.twitter.com/pDUbFXp4bQ

- Mediazone. Belarus (@mediazona_by) May 23, 2021

What are the Belarusian authorities accusing Protasevich of?

25-year-old Roman Protasevich is the host of the channel in the NEXTA project (read as “nekhta”, which means “someone” in Belarusian), which was founded in 2015 by then schoolboy and friend of Roman Stepan Putilo.

After the presidential elections, which, according to official data, Alexander Lukashenko won, the Nexta channel became the main source of information about the protests unfolding in the country, and, more recently, their coordinator.

In August last year, Protasevich said in an interview with the BBC Russian Service that he was forced to flee to Poland due to persecution by the Belarusian special services. Stepan Putilo did this earlier.

“Four to six criminal cases have been opened against me and Stepan, with a total prison term of up to 25 years,” Protasevich said then. — There are articles “divulging state secrets”, “insulting the president”, “inciting mass riots” and so on. We have no idea how many cases there really are.”

When asked if he was afraid that the Belarusian special services would get to him in Poland, Protasevich replied that he was in the process of obtaining refugee status, and they would not be able to deport him to Belarus. But he admitted that he periodically changes addresses, phone numbers and tries not to walk around at night.

In November 2020, the KGB of Belarus included Protasevich, along with another creator of Next, Stepan Putilo, on the list of terrorists.

In addition, the Belarusian Investigative Committee opened criminal cases against Putilo and Protasevich under articles on organizing mass riots in Minsk and inciting social hostility towards representatives of the authorities and the police. These articles imply a punishment of up to 15 and 12 years in prison, respectively.

The Nexta Telegram channel and its logo were recognized as extremist materials on the territory of Belarus.

The “Belarus of the Brain” channel, which is currently headed by Protasevich, was also recognized as extremist.

On the subject: Ex-security official from Belarus claims Lukashenka's involvement in the murder of a Ukrainian journalist

How the West will respond to the interception of Ryanair flight in Minsk

After seven hours spent at Minsk airport, the flight took off for Vilnius - without six passengers, writes Air force... At the airport he was met by the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Simonyte.

“This unprecedented situation requires a thorough investigation,” she said.

Ryanair said in a statement that the crew was notified by Belarus of the potential threat on board and instructed to head to Minsk. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said in an interview with Irish radio Newstalk that the interception of his company's passenger plane by the Belarusian authorities was an act of state piracy.

“It appears that the authorities’ intention was to remove the journalist and his companion from the plane... We believe that several [Belarusian] KGB agents also disembarked,” the Ryanair chief executive said.

The forced landing caused a sharp and unanimous condemnation of the entire European Union, including Germany, France, Poland and Greece, from where the plane took off, Bloomberg said. According to him, further sanctions against Minsk may follow.

US Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fischer tweeted how disgusting that Lukashenka falsified the bomb threat and ordered the combat aircraft to take off, all in order to arrest an opposition journalist.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described the actions of the Belarusian authorities as an act of state terrorism.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the detention of Roman Protasevich by the Belarusian authorities following the hijacking of a Ryanair passenger plane. This is a reprehensible act of state terrorism,” he wrote on Twitter.

Moravetski also supported the initiative of the Lithuanian President to discuss the incident at the EU summit and has already addressed the President of the European Council with a proposal to discuss the imposition of immediate sanctions against Belarus.

European Council President Charles Michel said that on Monday, May 24, at the summit, EU leaders will discuss this unprecedented case and will not leave it without consequences.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has expressed concern about the forced landing of Ryanair's flight, which it believes may be in violation of the Chicago Convention, which sets out the basic principles for the operation of international aviation. The organization said it expects official information about the incident from the states and services involved in the incident.

Charge d'Affaires of Belarus in Warsaw was summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry for an explanation. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry summoned the Charge d'Affaires of Belarus with a demand to immediately release the passengers and the crew of the Ryanair plane that landed in Minsk.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called on NATO and EU allies to immediately respond to the threat that the Belarusian regime poses to international civil aviation.

The General Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania, in turn, announced the start of a pre-trial investigation into the hijacking of an aircraft for terrorist purposes and the treatment of people prohibited by international law, said the representative of the Lithuanian prosecutor's office Elyana Martinonene.

Tom Tugendhatt, Chairman of the Special Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, stressed that the forcible landing of the plane in order to drown out the voices of the opposition is an attack on democracy.

“Greece strongly condemns the act of state-sponsored air piracy that occurred today and led to the forced landing of Ryanair FR 4978, flying from Athens to Vilnius, in Minsk,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to the department, of the 171 passengers on board the plane, 11 are Greek citizens.

“Such an act, which endangers the lives of all passengers, is unacceptable,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said, also demanding that all passengers be allowed to arrive at their final destination. “We condemn the illegal arrest of Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich, who faces the death penalty.”

Germany called on the Belarusian authorities to promptly explain the incident, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Minsk's actions highly unacceptable and called for punishment of those responsible.

British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab warned that such extraordinary actions of the Belarusian authorities would entail serious consequences.

“There is no doubt that the Belarusian authorities used a hoax bomb threat and a MiG fighter to force a plane flying from one European Union country to another to land, with the apparent sole purpose of detaining a critical journalist they had fled. they really wanted to silence him,” said a statement from Amnesty International, which described the landing of the plane and the detention of Roman Protasevich in Minsk as an act of air piracy.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Twitter that the incident was serious and required an international investigation. Simon Coveney, the foreign minister of Ireland, where Ryanair is based, in turn said: “The EU's inaction or indecisiveness will be perceived as weakness by Belarus.”

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New sanctions and a flight ban?

The US, EU, Britain and Canada, after large-scale protests in Belarus last year, imposed sanctions against representatives of the Belarusian authorities. They affected almost 90 Belarusian officials, including Lukashenka.

“By carrying out an act of coercion, the Belarusian authorities have endangered the safety of passengers and crew,” European diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday, May 24.

Possible sanctions, according to Bloomberg, will be discussed at the EU summit opening on Monday in Brussels and could include sanctions against individuals and legal entities, the suspension of all EU airline flights over Belarus and a ban on Belavia airlines landing at European airports.

In addition, according to the agency, all transit, including ground transportation, may be suspended. These steps will complement the sanctions package that Brussels was working on prior to the incident in the skies, which is due to be presented next month.

Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke in favor of an early ban on flights to Belarus. Menendez and the heads of parliamentary foreign affairs committees of seven European countries, including Lithuania and Britain, issued a joint statement calling the forced landing in Minsk an act of piracy.

The authors of the statement called for a ban on all flights over Belarus, including to and from the country, and also appealed to NATO and EU countries with a proposal to introduce additional sanctions. Blinken demanded a full investigation of the actions of the Belarusian authorities, which, according to him, endangered the lives of passengers, including US citizens.

Latvian airline airBaltic no longer flies over Belarus. This was announced by the Minister of Transport of Latvia Talis Linkays, writes "Voice of America"... Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air also avoids Belarusian airspace and continues to monitor the situation, the airline's representative said. Russian airlines fly to Belarus and through its airspace in normal mode, the press service of the Federal Air Transport Agency reported. Ryanair also continues to fly over the country.

There is still stable air traffic in the airspace over Belarus, but some carriers have begun to fly around the republic, the state-owned company Belaeronavigatsia told Interfax: “Visually there are no big changes... Some companies have flown bypassing Belarus, but this is a common situation, companies themselves can change routes according to their own considerations. In general, I can’t say that Belarus is being bypassed.”

The US Secretary of State called for an early meeting of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on ICAO to exclude Belarus, while ICAO stated that it was seriously concerned about the incident, which could violate the Chicago Convention, which is the basis of civil aviation.

Belarusians need decisive actions & help of the international community. Forcing @Ryanair plane to land to detain Raman Pratasevich is the result of the regime's impunity. This is a real internal occupation. https://t.co/ddJGW2bXU5

- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (@Tsihanouskaya) May 23, 2021

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has already responded to reports of possible sanctions. “The haste of openly bellicose statements from a number of countries and European structures is striking. The situation is directly and clearly escalating,” ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz told RIA Novosti. “There is no apparent desire to understand it objectively.” Instead, slogans about sanctions were immediately heard again.”

Moscow reaction

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova disagreed with the West's assessment of what happened to the Ryanair flight.

“It’s shocking that the West calls an incident in Belarusian airspace “shocking,” she wrote on Facebook. “Or everything should be shocking: from the forced landing of the Bolivian President’s plane in Austria at the request of the United States and in Ukraine after 11 minutes of takeoff of the Belarusian plane carrying an Anti-Maidan activist.” Or the similar behavior of others should not be shocking.”

“We are in favor of assessing this situation not rashly, not in a hurry, on the basis of all available information,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov forwarded the journalists' questions to the aviation authorities.

“I’ll make a reservation right away: I will not comment anything on the Ryanair plane,” he said. “There are certain international aviation regulations, and it is up to the international aviation authorities to make an assessment here.”

According to him, the Kremlin “has no information” about the Russian woman Sapega, who was detained with Protasevich. When asked that four more Russian citizens did not fly from Minsk to Vilnius, Peskov replied: “We do not have information about who flew out and where they flew from.” And to the suggestion that there could be Russian agents on board, he responded: “That’s the last thing I would like to comment on.”

According to the BBC's monitoring service, state TV channels tried to justify Minsk's actions by drawing parallels with the 2013 incident when the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to land in Austria. TV channels present the official version of the Belarusian authorities.

Former commander of the US Army in Europe Ben Hodges, quoted by Reuters, recalled that the Belarusian air defense system is closely integrated with the Russian one.

“If something was happening in Belarusian airspace, the Kremlin - or at least the Russian military - could not have been unaware of it,” Ben Hodges said.

This is part of the footage from the Ryanair flight that was diverted to Minsk to arrest a Belarusian opposition journalist.

Read more about the story: https://t.co/tpwerH4IGN pic.twitter.com/sMQXtyAICS

- euronews (uroeuronews) May 24, 2021

US reaction

The US Secretary of State issued a statement in which he expressed deep concern about the actions of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, who arrested Roman Protasevich, writes "Voice of America".

“The United States strongly condemns the forced reorientation of an aircraft between the two EU member states and the subsequent removal and arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release, ”the US Secretary of State said in a statement released on Sunday.

“This shocking act, committed by the Lukashenka regime, endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including US citizens,” the document says. “Preliminary reports about the involvement of the Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military aircraft to escort the aircraft cause serious concern and require a full-scale investigation.”

“We are closely coordinating our response with our partners, including the EU, as well as officials from Lithuania and Greece,” the statement said.

“Given the signs that the forced landing was justified by false pretexts, we support the early convening of a meeting of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization to consider these events,” the US Foreign Office said.

Recalling that “independent media are an important pillar of the rule of law and a vital component of a democratic society,” the US reiterated its condemnation of the Lukashenka’s regime's continued harassment and arbitrary detention of journalists.

“We support the Belarusian people in their striving for a free, democratic and prosperous future and their call for the regime to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the State Department said in a statement.

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