The EU condemns Belarus forcing a plane to land to arrest an opposition journalist

The High Representative for EU Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has condemned the “inadmissible” decision of the Belarusian government to force a flight between Athens and Vilnius to land in Minsk in order to arrest the Belarusian opposition journalist Roman Protasevich. What happened to the Ryanair flight between Athens and Vilnius, forced to land in Minsk due to an alleged security threat. It is absolutely inadmissible, “Borrell posted on social media. Borrell has warned that they consider the Belarusian government “responsible for the safety of all passengers on the plane.” “ALL passengers must be able to continue their journey immediately,” he added. The plane made an emergency landing in Minsk after an alleged bomb threat, which has allowed the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich, one of the founders of the Telegram channel Nexta, which played a key role in coordinating the protests that followed the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, denounces the opposition: “Roman Protasevich has been arrested. I was on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius. The plane made an emergency landing at the Minsk airport, “the human rights center Viasna posted on the social network Telegram. For its part, the Nexta Live channel accused Lukashenko’s supporters of the “hijacking” of the plane, in order to arrest Protasevich. “The death penalty awaits him in Belarus,” according to Nexta Live. The office of the leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile, Svetlana Tijanovskaya, has assured that a MiG-29 fighter plane escorted the plane to the Minsk airport.In addition, he assures that when he received the bomb warning he was very close to the border with Lithuania and that the Vilna airport was closer than that of Minsk. Tijanovskaya herself has denounced the landing in Minsk “forced” by the “regime” and has warned that Protasevich could be sentenced to death. For this reason, he has called for an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and sanctions against Belarus. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has also criticized the “abominable” arrest of Protasevich and demanded his immediate release. It has also asked the EU and NATO to react to “the threat posed to international civil aviation by the Belarusian regime.” Already last November, the Belarusian Security Committee (KGB) included Protasevich and another founder of Nexta. , Stepan Putilo, on his list of people implicated in terrorist acts.The presidential elections of August 9, 2020 in Belarus, which gave Lukashenko a new term, sparked several months of protests. Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won 80.1 percent of the vote, compared to 10.1 percent for the opposition Tijanovskaya, according to the official vote. The Belarusian opposition denounced massive fraud and demanded a repeat election, an option Lukashenko ruled out completely. Several countries, including the United States, members of the European Union, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, did not recognize those elections. On the other hand, Russia, China, several nations of the post-Soviet space, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Turkey, among others, considered the results of the vote valid.