Belarus arrests opposition figure after flight diverted
Al Jazeera
Exiled opposition activist Roman Protasevich detained after his flight from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Minsk.
A founder of a messaging app channel that has been a key information conduit for opponents of Belarus’s authoritarian president has been arrested after an airliner on which he was travelling was diverted to the capital, Minsk, 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 – travelling on Sunday from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania – to the Minsk airport. The Belarusian Interior Ministry said Raman Pratasevich was arrested at the airport. Pratasevich is a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app’s Nexta channel, which Belarus last year declared as “extremist” after it was used to help organise large protests against Lukashenko.More Related News