Lukashenko critic held after Ryanair flight diverted to Belarus in ‘attack on democracy’

A vocal opponent of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko has been detained after the Ryanair passenger jet he was flying on was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk.

The flight carrying Roman Protasevich was diverted to the country’s capital during a routine flight from Greece to Lithuania, FlightRadar24 tracking data showed.

A spokesperson has since said Mr Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet to accompany the plane – which was travelling from Athens to Vilnius – to an airport in Minsk.

The Belarusian Interior Ministry said Raman Pratasevich was arrested at the airport.

Mr Pratasevich, who had fled the country for Poland, faces charges that could carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. His supporters say he could face the death penalty.

The British MP Tom Tugenhadt called the incident “an attack on democracy”, while the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda, said it was “unprecedented”.

The incident comes amid a continuing crackdown on opposition figures in Belarus, following a presidential election last year in which opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya lost to long-time ruler Alexander Lukashenko, in a poll widely thought to be rigged.

Ms Tikhanovskaya, who fled to neighbouring Lithuania after the election, tweeted that Mr Protasevich should be released immediately and called for an investigation into the incident. She also said Belarus should be sanctioned.

“The regime forced the landing @Ryanair plane in Minsk to arrest journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich,” she said. “He faces the death penalty in Belarus. We demand immediate release of Raman, @ICAO investigation, and sanctions against Belarus.”

The last-minute diversion allegedly came after the carrier received a bomb threat while flying over Belarus en route from Athens to Vilnius. There were 170 people on the plane from 12 different countries, according to authorities in Lithuania.

A Mig-29 fighter jet was dispatched to accompany the passenger plane.

Authorities did not find any explosive devices on the plane, a Minsk International Airport spokesperson was quoted as saying by the country’s official Belta news agency.

But Belta also reported that Mr Lukashenko had personally given the order for the plane to land at Minsk.

Shortly after news of the incident emerged, Reuters reported that Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda had accused Belarus of landing the plane in Minsk “by force”.

He demanded the release of Mr Protasevich. “I call on NATO and EU allies to immediately react to the threat posed to international civil aviation by the Belarus regime. The international community must take immediate steps that this does not repeat,” the president said.

Reporting that Mr Protasevich had been deemed a terrorist by Belarus KGB, Hanna Liubakova, a Belarusian journalist alleged that Mr Lukashenko’s forces may have effectively “hijacked” the plane, saying: “Most probably his agents reported a bomb on a plane and forced the plane to land in Minsk”.