As international reaction to Belarus ‘ audacious act of airplane piracy comes fast and furious, those who know the journalist snatched off that Ryanair flight Sunday …
As international reaction to Belarus ‘ audacious act of airplane piracy comes fast and furious, those who know the journalist snatched off that Ryanair flight Sunday worry deeply about his fate and that of the many other reporters and bloggers now languishing in Belarusian prisons. «For us it’s very close,» Alexander Lukashuk, the director the Belarus service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), told Fox News. «And a bigger thing in terms of the human dimension than hijacking a plane, which is in itself quite amazing.» Belarus under six-term President Alexander Lukashenko always had a «human rights and democratic values issue,» Lukashuk said. «After this hijacking, the U.S., EU and NATO will have to look at Lukashenko as a security threat.» Belarus sent a MiG fighter jet to force the flight from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, to divert to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, saying they feared there was a bomb on board. The plane had crossed into Belarusian airspace when this occurred. No sooner had the plane landed when police arrested 26-year-old Roman Protasevich, a popular and swashbuckling blogger and one of the founders of the Telegram channel Nexta, where many around the world get their news about Belarus and where they watched the protests spread across the country after last August’s disputed presidential election.
