MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2021) In the wake of the Ryanair plane diversion which resulted in Belarus arresting a co-founder of a Poland-based Telegram channel that directed post-election protests, the Eastern European country contends with mounting criticism from the West.
On Sunday, the Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius had to make an emergency landing in Minsk over a bomb threat which later turned out to have been false. Among the passengers was Roman Protasevich, one of Nexta's founders, who was detained by the country's law enforcement during the stopover. His 23-old female companion, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, was reportedly detained alongside him.
Protasevich might face up to 15 years in prison as he is on the country's terrorist list and is accused of organizing mass unrest, among other things, since his Telegram channel is recognized as one of the main communication hubs for the Belarusian opposition during last year's protests.
According to the Lithuanian news website Delfi, Belarusian riot police entered the plane and detained the activist while also checking the passengers' luggage.
"He was very frightened. I looked him in the eyes, it was very sad," a witness told the news outlet.
After the arrest, authorities of various European countries, including Poland, Greece, Germany, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council chief Charles Michel and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), expressed their serious concern over the situation. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington is cooperating closely with the European Union on the matter and calling for a full investigation.
The EU leadership has threatened sanctions against those responsible for the incident. The Financial Times reported earlier on Monday, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, that the European Union is weighing various measures against Belarus, including a potential ban on its national airline Belavia's planes landing in European airports.
The Kremlin has called for a sober assessment of the incident, warning against haste to condemn anyone in this situation. The spokesman noted that Belarus will inform the Russian Embassy in the country about Sapega's alleged detention.
Meanwhile, the European People's Party Group has urged the EU to suspend flights over Belarus after the Sunday incident, which Latvian national airline airBaltic has already done on its own initiative.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said that her country would not allow flights either crossing or planning to cross the Belarusian airspace.
In addition, Poland's LOT and Hungary's Wizz chose to avoid the Belarusian airspace, according to Lithuanian Transport Minister Marius Skuodis.
Oleg Gaidukevich, the deputy chairman of the Belarussian lower house's standing committee on international affairs, criticized the international response as hypocritical and raised the example of the plane of former Bolivian president Evo Morales being stopped and searched in 2013 in Vienna for American whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"Unlike other countries, Belarus has never violated international agreements. Let's remember when they grounded a plane which they searched for Snowden. No one was talking about it, no one was outraged. Once again, the double standard is obvious," Gaidukevich told Baltnews.
Civil unrest took place in Belarus following the country's August presidential election, won by incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko and contested by the opposition in favor of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
In November, the Belarusian Investigative Committee filed a request with the Polish Justice Ministry through the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office to extradite Protasevich and another Nexta co-founder, Stepan Putilo, to Belarus for criminal prosecution for their Telegram channel's role in those events. In February, Warsaw said it was reviewing the request.
