West condemns plane s diversion to arrest Belarus journalist
Raf Casert And Liudas Dapkus
Associated Press
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FILE - In this Sunday, March 26, 2017 file photo, Belarus police detain journalist Raman Pratasevich, center, in Minsk, Belarus. Raman Pratasevich, a founder of a messaging app channel that has been a key information conduit for opponents of Belarus authoritarian president, has been arrested after an airliner in which he was riding was diverted to Belarus because of a bomb threat. The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the Ryanair plane traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania to the Minsk airport. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
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U.S., EU condemn forced diversion of plane to arrest Belarus journalist
A Ryanair flight was forcibly diverted to Belarus in order to arrest an opposition journalist in a dramatic gambit that some said amounted to state terrorism or sheer piracy.
By RAF CASERT and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOVAssociated Press
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Belarus police detain journalist Raman Pratasevich, center, in Minsk, Belarus in March 2017. Pratasevich, a founder of a messaging app channel that has been a key information conduit for opponents of Belarus’ authoritarian president, has been arrested after an airliner in which he was riding was diverted to Belarus because of a bomb threat. The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the Ryanair plane traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania to the Minsk airport. AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File
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PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP via Getty Images
24 May 2021
BRUSSELS (AP) – Western outrage grew and the European Union threatened more sanctions Monday over the forced diversion of a plane to Belarus in order to arrest an opposition journalist in a dramatic gambit that some said amounted to state terrorism or sheer piracy.
Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through the country’s airspace and ordered it to land in the capital of Minsk. A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane – in a brazen show of force by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist for over a quarter-century.