Belarus sent a fighter jet on Sunday May 23 to intercept an airliner carrying an opposition activist who, according to the latter, was arrested on his arrival in Minsk by the security services of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko . Opposition media Nexta claimed that its former editor-in-chief Roman Protassevich was arrested after an emergency landing at the airport in the capital of Belarus of this aircraft, a Ryanair Boeing 737 coming from ‘Athens and with destination Vilnius in Lithuania. The Belarusian Interior Ministry initially confirmed this arrest on Telegram, before deleting this message, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
According to the authorities, the plane deviated from its path because of a “bomb threat”. Nexta claimed that the emergency landing was sparked by a “fight” started by Belarusian security agents, who were on board and who claimed that an explosive device was in the aircraft. Minsk airport, quoted by the official Belta news agency, claimed that the bomb threat was “wrong” after a search of the Boeing. President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to intercept the plane after the alert, his press service said.
Historical protest movement
Last summer and autumn, Alexander Lukashenko was confronted with a historic protest movement that brought together tens of thousands of people for several weeks in Minsk and other cities, a huge mobilization for a country of barely 9.5 million inhabitants. But the protest gradually faltered in the face of mass arrests, police violence that left at least four people dead, ongoing judicial harassment and heavy prison sentences imposed on activists and journalists.
Last November, the Belarusian security services (KGB), inherited from the Soviet period, placed Roman Protassevich and the founder of Nexta, Stepan Poutilo, on the list of “individuals involved in terrorist activities”. Current Nexta editor-in-chief Tadeusz Giczan said Belarusian KGB agents were on board the aircraft. “When the plane entered Belarusian airspace, KGB officers started a fight with Ryanair staff,” said Tadeusz Giczan, officers claiming that a bomb was on board. Contacted by Agence France-Presse, a spokesperson for Lithuanian airports said that she had received as a first explanation from Minsk airport a conflict between passengers and the crew.
Risk of “death penalty”?
Roman Protassevich is the former editor-in-chief of Nexta, a media outlet that played a key role in the recent wave of protests against the 2020 re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held the post since 1994. Founded in 2015, Nexta (“Some ‘un’ in Belarusian) had notably coordinated rallies across Belarus, broadcasting slogans and sharing photos and videos of rallies and violence.
The activist’s arrest was immediately condemned by Belarusian opposition figure in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. On Twitter, she assured that the regime had “forced” Roman Protassevich’s plane to land which, according to her, “incurs the death penalty”. The former Soviet Republic of Belarus is the last country in Europe to apply the death penalty. Germany demanded an “immediate explanation” after the diversion of the plane. The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, for his part denounced on Twitter “an unprecedented event”, accusing the Belarusian regime of having been behind “this abject act”.
The current repression in Belarus has earned Minsk a battery of Western sanctions that have led Alexander Lukashenko to move closer to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
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