West slams Belarus over jet diversion, journalist arrest

BRUSSELS (AP):

Western outrage grew, and the European Union threatened more sanctions on Monday against Belarus over its forced diversion of a passenger jet to the capital of Minsk in order to arrest an opposition journalist in a dramatic gambit that some said amounted to state terrorism or piracy.

Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through Belarus airspace on Sunday and ordered it to land. 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 the country with an iron fist for over a quarter-century.

Belarus authorities then arrested passenger Raman Pratasevich, a 26-year-old activist, journalist, and prominent critic who ran a popular messaging app that played a key role in helping organize massive protests against the authoritarian leader. Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend were taken off the plane shortly after it landed, and authorities haven’t said where they are being held. Ryanair Flight FR4978, which began in Athens, Greece, was eventually allowed to continue on to Vilnius, Lithuania.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan raised the issue in his call with the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. She added that the administration condemned what she called the “shocking act” of diverting a flight to detain a journalist.

“It constitutes a brazen affront to international peace and security by the regime. We demand an immediate international, transparent, and credible investigation of this incident,” she said, adding that the US was in touch with NATO, the EU, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, among others, about next steps.