Belarus has been criticized for landing a plane and arresting a critic.
According to Lukashenko, a bomb threat was the reason.
That seems questionable.
Minsk - On Sunday (May 23) a Ryanair plane was forced to land in Minsk.
On board was the regime critic Roman Protassewitsch, whom the police arrested immediately after landing in Belarus.
The flight diversion triggered severe international criticism.
Since then, many airlines have been avoiding the airspace over Belarus and the EU has already adopted sanctions.
Belarus, however, relies on an alleged threatening e-mail that was the reason the plane was pushed to land.
According to new information, it appears that this e-mail only arrived after the landing at Minsk Airport had been initiated.
After Ryanair landing: Belarus claims to have received bomb threat by email from Hamas
According to the Belarusian government, there was a threatening letter from the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas against the Ryanair plane, as the AFP reports. The email stated, among other things, that "a bomb had been deposited" on board the plane, said Artem Sikorski, the head of the aviation department in the Belarusian Ministry of Transport, on Monday. According to his own statements, he read a Russian translation of the e-mail, which was supposedly in English, as evidence.
According to Sikorski, the email said: “We, soldiers of Hamas, demand that Israel stop the attacks on the Gaza Strip.
We demand that the European Union end its support for Israel. ”If these demands are not met,“ a bomb will explode over Vilnius ”.
Hamas denied any connection with the bomb threat.
A negotiated ceasefire has existed in the Middle East conflict since May 21.
Landing of the Ryanair plane is initiated before the alleged threat mail arrives
Around 12.30 p.m., the Ryanair plane reached Belarusian airspace en route from Athens to Vilnius. Shortly afterwards, Minsk flight control warned the aircraft of a bomb threat and recommended that the pilot land in Minsk. In the radio communication published by Belarus, air traffic control said: "We have been informed by the security services that you have a bomb on board and that it can be detonated over Vilnius". The pilot then asked where this information came from. It was sent to Minsk Airport by email, according to air traffic control.
At 12.47 p.m. the aircraft changed course and headed for Minsk.
This is evident from the radio communication with the pilot.
The said threatening mail with the bomb threat was only received on an account at Minsk Airport at 12:57 p.m. - almost half an hour after flight control had initiated the landing of the plane.
Der
Spiegel was
able to see the content and time of this email.
Lukashenko's remark that he had received news of a bomb on board from Switzerland also raises some puzzles.
Der
Spiegel
speculates that this may be due to the fact that the provider of the said threat mail is based in Geneva.
(tkip) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
Also interesting:
the news ticker on the Ryanair incident and Protasewitsch.
List of rubric lists: © Mindaugas Kulbis
