A 26-year-old journalist and his girlfriend have been arrested in Belarus after the government used a fake bomb threat to force his commercial flight to land – and the implications are being felt as far as Australia.
Roman Protasevich is the former editor of alternative Belarusian press site Nexta, an independent publication based in Poland to avoid government interference. He’s reported vital information about the conflict between the government and the opposition, and helped organise protests condemning Belarus’ first and only President since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko. (FYI: Belarus is an Eastern European nation that only gained independence in 1991 and the only country in Europe that still executes prisoners).
Last year, after Lukashenko claimed that he had won the presidential election by a suspicious landslide, his opposition, presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, held mass peaceful protests. Over 30,000 people were arrested at the event, which Protasevich both helped organise and reported on. Afterwards, he was placed on a terrorist list, which leads us to what’s happening now.
How did Belarus manage to arrest Roman Protasevich mid-flight?
On Sunday, Roman Protasevich boarded Ryanair flight FR4978 in Athens, Greece, heading for Lithuania. But, instead of landing at Vilnius International Airport, the plane was diverted and escorted by a Belarusian fighter jet to the capital, Minsk. Once it landed, Roman and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Sofia Sapega were arrested. As of writing, they are still being detained.
“We all on the place had panicked because we thought we were going to crash,” one Lithuanian passenger told ABC News. “This was a sudden dive, changing the altitude very drastically. It was very violent. I’ve never felt this on an airplane. Everybody was in shock.”
According to Protasevich’s colleague and Nexta TV‘s Editor-In-Chief, Tadeusz Giczan, a man sitting next to Roman on the plane described the first-hand account of what happened.
“They took us out of the plane, the dogs sniffed our luggage. They took that guy (Roman) aside, threw his belongings on the runway. We asked him what’s going on. He told me who he is and added, ‘they’ll execute me here’.
“He was calmer by then, but he was still trembling. An officer was standing next to him all the time, soon the soldiers came and took him away.”
What is Belarus saying?
The Belarusian Government claimed that they had diverted the plane because of an alleged bomb threat from Palestinian militant group Hamas. A senior officer read out an alleged letter from the terrorist group to reporters, which said: “If you do not fulfill our demands, the bomb will explode over Vilnius.”
And what is everyone else saying?
Hamas has denied any involvement and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the claim “completely implausible.”
Hours after his arrest, Roman appeared in a video in a detention facility where he confessed to organising mass protests in Minsk and said that he hadn’t been experiencing any “health issues” while he’s been detained and that the “police officers treat me properly and according to the law.”
But, the man’s father, Dmitri Protasevich, is not convinced, telling the BBC: “We are afraid to even think about it, but it’s possible he could be beaten and tortured. We are really afraid of that.
“We are really shocked and really upset. This sort of thing shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century at the heart of Europe.”
In response to this incident, the EU has told European airlines not to fly over Belarus airspace and said that more economic sanctions are to come, per the BBC.
“Australia calls for the immediate release and a full investigation. We will engage with allies and partners in the international response to this event.”