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Ryanair flight FR4978 after forced landing in Minsk
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- / AFP
The Belarusian government critic Roman Protasewitsch, who lives in exile, was arrested by the opposition after an emergency landing of his plane at Minsk airport.
The flight from Athens to Lithuania was diverted to the Belarusian capital because of a "bomb threat" and landed there in an emergency, reported the regime-critical Telegram channel "Nexta" on Sunday.
Protasevich was then arrested at the airport.
After the emergency landing, no bomb was found when the aircraft was checked, "Nexta" reported.
Thereupon "all passengers were sent to another security check".
Protasevich was among them.
"He was arrested."
Protasewitsch was co-founder and editor-in-chief of the regime-critical Telegram channel "Nexta", but left there some time ago.
Just like the co-founder and current editor-in-chief Stepan Putilo, he is accused of sedition and the call for mass unrest in Belarus, which is why both had to leave the country.
In the eyes of the dictator Lukashenko's regime, they are considered extremists.
Escorted by a Mig-29
The Belarusian authorities put Protasevich on the list of "persons involved in terrorist activities" last November.
The Telegram channel "Pool des Erste", which is attributed to Lukashenko's presidential administration, reported that Lukashenko himself had given the order to escort the passenger plane to Minsk after a bomb threat with a Mig-29 fighter jet, where, according to data from Flightradar24, it was against Noon landed.
Photos show the aircraft on the apron, surrounded by fire engines.
The opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who also lives in exile, denounced the arrest of her comrade-in-arms.
The Belarus government "forced" the plane to land with Protasevich on board, she wrote on Twitter.
He faces the death penalty in his home country.
more on the subject
More than two million people follow his Telegram channel: The 22-year-old who is dangerous to Lukashenko by Christina Hebel, Moscow
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators were mobilized via "Nexta" after the presidential election in Belarus, which was accompanied by massive allegations of fraud last August.
The protests, which lasted for months, later weakened significantly.
The security forces used violence against the demonstrators, several demonstrators were killed, there were mass arrests and torture of detainees.
More than 400 demonstrators were sentenced to prison terms.
mak / AFP