Belarus opposition says government forced Ryanair plane to land to arrest journalist
The Ryanair plane was en route to Vilnius when it was diverted to Minsk. The opposition says the move was a bid to arrest a journalist on board who is critical of Lukashenko's government.
A Belarusian journalist and opposition activist is being held at an airport in Minsk after his Lithuania-bound flight was forced to land, opposition politicians and outlets reported on Sunday.
Opposition figures swiftly criticized the move, which they said was a bid by the government of longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko to clamp down on critical voices.
A Ryanair flight traveling from Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania was diverted to land in Belarus, the flight tracking site Flightradar24 reported.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the journalist in question is Raman Pratasevich, who "faces the death penalty" in Belarus.
"Raman Pratasevich is a Belarusian journalist, photographer, blogger, and activist. He worked as a photographer for the largest Belarusian media, was a fellow of the Vaclav Havel Journalism Program," she wrote.
