❗️A Ryanair plane en route from Athens to Vilnius was forcibly landed in Minsk yesterday to detain Roman #Protasevich, Belarusian opposition journalist and former editor of the NEXTA Telegram channel.
Photo: Roman Protasevich’s Facebook
Photo: Roman Protasevich’s Facebook
According to the sources of @nau_belarus, the representative body of #Belarusian opposition, the Belarusian side threatened to shoot down the plane through air traffic control if it did not perform an emergency landing in Minsk.
Furthermore, a MiG-29 fighter aircraft was employed to escort and land the plane, as confirmed by #Minsk.
Interestingly, according to @nau_belarus, apart from #Protasevich and his girlfriend, 4 Russian citizens did not fly to Vilnius from Minsk either. Later, Lithuanian Defense Minister @a_anusauskas tweeted that 5 passengers did not fly to Vilnius apart from the oppositionist.
#Protasevich reportedly managed to inform his colleagues about the suspicious interest in him at the airport in Athens. A Russian-speaking man tried to take a picture of Roman's documents, and then turned around and left, although he was next in line for the documents check.
#Protasevich is accused of terrorism in #Belarus, by which #Lukashenko’s regime considers organizing protests against the self-proclaimed president, and faces the death penalty.
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