The case of the Belarusian hijacking provokes the anger of the European Union on the eve of the summit of the heads of state and government in Brussels. A Ryanair plane that departed from Athens for Vilnius was hijacked when it had almost reached its destination, a few tens of miles from the Lithuanian border, by a Belarusian air force jet. Among the 179 passengers, who left for their destination in the evening, there was one that particularly interested the security services of Minsk: a young journalist, the 26-year-old Roman Protasevich, former director of an opposition information channel, Nexta , active on Telegram since the disputed electoral victory of Prime Minister Alexander Lukashenko, last summer, and subsequently cataloged as a “terrorist” by the Belarusian authorities. According to the opposition sites that have spread the news on social networks, and in particular according to the leader of the movement Svetlana Tikhanoskaya, the young man was arrested immediately after the emergency landing and “his life is in danger”, Belarus being the last European country where there is still the death penalty.
Also according to information released by opponents and confirmed by Lithuania, the Mig-29 fighter that forced the Ryanair aircraft to land was armed with rockets and was accompanied by a two-seater Su-29 and an MI-24 attack helicopter. The hijacking and arrest sparked Europe’s anger, but the Belarusian authorities justified themselves by giving their version of the facts: a bomb alert was launched from the plane, and for this reason it was landed in Minsk ; it would have been a false alarm, the airport authorities later explained. The explanation has not convinced the international community: voices of indignation and concern have been raised from all over Europe and the United Kingdom in addition to the formal request, by the Brussels authorities, to immediately allow passengers to continue their flight, as then occurred after several hours of waiting. The Farnesina expressed its “firm condemnation” of what happened; Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the incident a “criminal act of state terrorism” and asked the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who is preparing to welcome the 27 heads of state and government for a summit tomorrow in Brussels , to take advantage of the appointment to discuss immediate sanctions against Minsk.