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Outrage as Belarus makes bomb threat forcing Ryanair plane to land so opposition journalist can be arrested
“State-sponsored hijacking” after plane forced to land in Belarus.
European leaders are due to discuss their response after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight carrying a wanted opposition activist to divert and land in Minsk so they could arrest him.
Belarus reportedly tracked flight FR4978 from Athens after Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old opposition blogger exiled in Poland, was known to be on board.
Belarusian authorities scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force the Ryanair plane to make an emergency landing in Minsk.
According to reports, all passengers were asked to disembark, before Protasevich and a travelling companion were led away by police.
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The flight was then allowed to resume its journey to Lithuania.
European Union leaders have slammed the “hijacking” and will discuss “possible sanctions” on Belarus at their summit in Brussels on Monday.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounced yesterday’s major diplomatic incident as “an act of state terrorism”, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a “strong and united response” from the European Union.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the action would have consequences.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary described the forced diversion of his airline’s flight as “state-sponsored hijacking”.
“This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking… state-sponsored piracy,” he said.
“I can’t say much about it because the EU authorities and NATO are dealing with it at the moment. We’re debriefing our crew, who did a phenomenal job to get that aircraft and almost all the passengers out of Minsk after six hours.”
The incident comes as Belarus intensifies its crackdown on opposition figures following protests that gripped the ex-Soviet country after last year’s disputed presidential election.
