Belarus accused of 'hijacking' plane to arrest activist journalist, provokes outrage in the West

Belarus provoked outrage in the West after one of its warplanes forced a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk. Authorities arrested a passenger, dissident journalist Roman Protasevich. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it a "shocking act." More than 170 people were reportedly aboard. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

Belarus provoked outrage in the West after one of its warplanes forced a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk and arrested a passenger, dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it a “shocking act.” More than 170 people were reportedly aboard.

The plane, on a flight from Athens to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, was in Belarus airspace when it was intercepted and forced to land in its capital Minsk. Protasevich, a 26-year-old dissident journalist and passenger on the flight, was then arrested.

Belarus, an ally of Russia, said Monday its air traffic controllers could not “force” the Ryanair flight to land, and instead gave the plane’s crew “recommendations,” Reuters reported citing Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Belarusian state-owned news agency BelTA reported that authorities scrambled a MiG-29 fighter jet to divert the flight as it neared the Lithuanian border following orders from strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.

Ryanair confirmed that the crew on flight FR4978 had been notified by Belarusian air traffic control of a potential security threat on board. The plane landed and safety checks were carried out but “nothing untoward was found.”

CNBC contacted the Belarusian Foreign Ministry for comment Monday but is yet to receive a reply. However, the ministry’s press secretary told Russian news agency RIA that the West was jumping to conclusions.

“The haste of openly belligerent statements on the part of a number of countries and European structures is striking. The situation is being directly and clearly aggravated” the spokesman said, claiming it was being “deliberately politicized.”

Western outrage

Protasevich is a co-founder and former editor of the Nexta channel on the social media platform Telegram, a key destination for the political opposition in Belarus. His arrest has provoked outrage in Europe and the U.S. who called for his immediate release.

Nexta attracted the ire of Lukashenko last year after it bypassed a news blackout and reported on anti-Lukashenko protests following a general election widely believed to have been rigged in the president’s favor. The Belarusian president has denied the election was fixed.

Nexta was designated an extremist organization by Belarus last year. In November, Belarus asked Poland to extradite Protasevich, who has been living in exile since 2019, to Belarus for what it called his “continuing criminal activity” and involvement with Nexta and Nexta Live.

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