Her flight Ryanair 4978 had already begun its descent when the pilot announced the sudden diversion of the plane to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. No explanation was given.
One of the passengers of the Boeing 737 reacted immediately, got up from his seat, reached the locker above him, took out a laptop from his hand luggage and gave it to a woman who was accompanying him, along with his mobile phone.
Belarussian dissident journalist Roman Protasevic wanted in Belarus for his role in broadcasting the news of the huge opposition demonstrations that took place last year in Minsk, he did not have much time. Minsk is less than 200 km away from Vilnius and the diversion would take place in just a few minutes.
“When it was announced that we were going to land in Minsk, Roman got up, opened his hand luggage locker, pulled out a piece of luggage and tried to sort things out.“, Said a Lithuanian passenger, who was named only as Mantas.
“I think he was wrong. “There were a lot of people and he could have given things to me or other passengers and not to his girlfriend, who I think was also arrested,” he added.
Outside the plane – although Mantas could not see it – was a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet, ordered by the Belarusian president. Alexander Lukashenko to force the plane to divert to Minsk.
Mantas spoke to Reuters after an all-day outburst that began after the flight departed from Athens and ended after the plane arrived late at night in Vilnius after stopping for more than seven hours in Minsk.
Another exhausted passenger, who did not give her name to reporters, said Protasevic seemed “too scared”. “I looked him in the eyes and he was very sad”, he added.
Other passengers on the flight said that the Belarusian opposition activist was experiencing some minutes of great anxiety when he realized that the Ryanair flight he was on would be diverted to Minsk, where he was later arrested.
“He started to panic and say it was because of him,” Monica Simkien, a 40-year-old Lithuanian, told AFP when the flight finally landed in Vilnius after a long delay.
“He just turned to the people and said he was in danger of being sentenced to death,” he said, adding that he then seemed “very calm” when he made sure he would be arrested upon arrival in Minsk.
He was “nervous at first, but then realized he could do nothing, calmed down and accepted”, also said Mantas, while another passenger, 37-year-old Envina Dimsa, added that “he was not shouting, but he seemed to be very scared. One would say that if there was an open exit, it would jump “.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonite went to Vilnius airport to receive the plane, along with several dozen Belarusian opposition activists.
Some carried the flag of the Belarusian opposition on their shoulders, while others held banners with the slogan: “I am / We are Roman Protashevich” or even “Ryanair, where is Roman?”.
“We have to show our solidarity to avoid being bent one by one,” said one of them, 36-year-old Alexander Glaskov. According to him, the arrest of Protasevic is a “crime”.
Protasevic, the former director of the Belarusian opposition media Nexta, lived in Poland, according to Reuters and Agence France-Presse, and was relayed by the Athens News Agency.
In November, Belarussian security services (KGB) listed Nexta founder Stepan Putilo as one of the “persons involved in terrorist activities”, and Nexta played a key role in the recent wave of re-election challenge in 2020. Mr Lukashenko, who has been President of Belarus since 1994.
Belarusian authorities diverted the flight he was boarding to Vilnius as the plane flew over the country due to a bomb alert, according to the state-run Belta news agency. The alarm turned out to be wrong.
“He was standing alone”
The 26-year-old Protasevic was immediately isolated from the other passengers on arrival at the flight to Minsk, while checks on the luggage using trained dogs showed that it was not a bomb.
“We saw that Roman was stopped due to some things in his luggage,” Mantas added, noting that authorities checked the luggage of the other passengers and took them by bus to the terminal, where they waited a few hours to board the plane again.
“We saw from the window that Roman was standing alone and a policeman with a dog was trying to find something (in his luggage).”
Another passenger, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Lithuanian media that Protasevic had told Belarussian security officials as soon as they arrived. “I saw that they took his passport. He took off his mask and said: “I am him and he and I am the reason why all this is happening”.
The European Union (EU) has demanded the immediate release of Protashevich, with the European Commission president and the Polish prime minister calling the incident a “piracy”.
The other passengers seemed exhausted on arrival in Vilnius, while Mantas said they spent hours queuing for luggage and passport control in Minsk before being allowed to enter a lounge to wait for their departure for Vilnius.
He noted that he could not say for sure whether Protasevic’s companion, who took his laptop and phone, was also detained in Minsk, but that there appeared to be more vacancies on the plane after taking off from Minsk for Vilnius, since it took off from Athens.
“This means that more than one person was left out of the plane – but it is difficult to be precise,” he said.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said in a press conference late Sunday night that Protasevic’s partner also did not board the flight from Minsk to Vilnius again.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
