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Belarus opposition figure detained after flight diverted

21 Comments
By LIUDAS DAPKUS

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State terrorism, nothing less.

Time to go, Lukashenko.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

Alexander Lukashenko will eventually go the way of Josip Broz Tito,

Tito is credited with transforming Yugoslavia from a poor nation to a middle-income one that saw vast improvements in women's rights, health, education, urbanization, industrialization, and many other areas of human and economic development.

I seriously doubt Lukashenko will go this way.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Denounce as hijacking? Rather reveil!

European papers investigated some more. Seems that the Ryanair flight was threatend to be shot down by the missile loaded MiG-29 if they don't comply. What a choice, shot down or being blown up (by the imaginary bomb as it turned out). The destinantion airport of Vilnius was much closer than Minsk, even Polish airports were closer. The pilot used Squak 7700 which is general emergency after he was informed by the Minsk air traffic control about his choices.

Then not letting passengers off board after landing also shows, they knew there was no bomb. The russian girlfriend of the arrested blogger also didn't continue the flight. Not certain why so far. According to NAU, apparently the passanger list was six people short after finally continuing to Vilnius. Besides the arrested blogger and his girlfriend that is one Belarussian an three Russian citizens that remained in Minsk. According to NEXTA these people belong to the Belarussion secret service KGB.

Belarus' state owned news agency said it was President Alexander Lukashenko’s personal order to force down the plane in Minsk. Roman Protasevich was arrested when the plane landed and could await the death penalty, not just jail.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Even with international treaties on overflight rights, countries still retain ultimate sovereignty over their own airspace and are entitled to direct flights to land for any reason. Overflying a country where you're a wanted fugitive is rarely a good idea.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

This is an easy one. State sponsored air piracy will not be tolerated.

Suspend indefinitely all commercial air traffic into and out of Belarus.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Alexander Lukashenko will eventually go the way of Josip Broz Tito, and the sooner, the better.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Europe is lucky that this guy was elected after Belarus sent all their nukes to Russia.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Two wrongs do not make a right.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

zichiToday  08:57 am JST

Outrageous action by the corrupt dictator Lukashenko cause the plane to divert so he could arrest Raman Pratasevich.

M3M3M3 We can argue that the bomb threat was a bit over the top, but it's not uncommon for the authorities to engage in deception in order to bring a suspect safely into custody. 

'A bit over the top'? These hijackers scared the Kool-Aid out of the passengers and crew. It's trauma, period. even worse for kids. Nobody has the right to toy with people's lives and emotions like this, it ain't funny at all.

This is an act of air piracy by a corrupt illegal dictatorship that the Belasarian people themselves have ousted in elections last year and don't want. And it's a terroristic act because 'terror' = 'fear' and these hosers caused everyone else on board to be terrified. People have a right to fly the skies in peace and this is a violation. This is terrorism, piracy and Alexander Lukashenko is behind it and he's a dirtbag for doing this.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Putin’s mini-me cannot even kidnap properly.

1st you poison them, THEN you divert.

1 ( +9 / -8 )

Fascism comes in many guises since decision makers in government are constantly tempted to push the envelope to enhance their authority over the general population and seize ever more political power by brooking no dissent or opposition to their actions. Keeping such ruthlessness in check by promoting and defending democratic values is a wearisome constant uphill battle for citizens in any society struggling to survive in a dog-eat-dog world and the politician wolves in suits like Lukashenko are ever ready to pounce when an opportunity to seize their prey comes on a Ryanair passenger plane. Something must be done to stop the world's steady slide into another era of state absolutism and anti-democratic authoritarianism. Short of draconian punishments for government figures who abuse their powers (the difficulty being that the same miscreant executives are naturally loath to permit their own arrest, trial and incarceration since they have considerable influence over the legislature, police, judiciary and the secretive state security services), it's hard to envisage what can be done in 2021 to reset the doomsday clock of democracy approaching one minute to midnight. The world passed 1984 long ago and the abuses of state power continue to proliferate even in the self-styled "democracies". No pass should be given to the mustachioed Mussolini of Minsk who must be made to release Mr Pratasevich immediately or pay a prohibitively high price for this outrageous act of air piracy.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

 Overflying a country where you're a wanted fugitive is rarely a good idea.

Thanks for the tip. And as others have pointed out, air piracy did not start with Belarussians. But something must be done to stop the worsening worldwide epidemic of lawlessness by government agencies that defies and belies the concept of citizens' "wokeness". Rampant government abuses around the world, now more evident than ever as a result of modern communications technology, should alert us to urgently demand reforms before the water in the pan gets any hotter and we all become proverbial boiled frogs.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Tell mini-me that his personal accounts are frozen and all air traffic to from or through his airspace are banned until all are released unharmed.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Fake bomb threat is illegal - people get jailed for that. Imagine a state doing that stunt

And that stunt inconvenienced the rest of the passengers

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

something must be done to stop the worsening worldwide epidemic of lawlessness by government

How exactly was it lawlessness? They executed an arrest warrant on a fugitive who physically entered their country. You may not like the laws of Belarus, but that doesn't make it lawless. It would have been lawless if they bundled him into a van in Greece or Lithuania, but they didn't.

This is an easy one. State sponsored air piracy will not be tolerated.

It's not air piracy. They didn't burst into the cockpit and commandeer the plane. Every flight is required to obey the instructions of the country they're flying through. In this case they were instructed to land at a particular airport.

We can argue that the bomb threat was a bit over the top, but it's not uncommon for the authorities to engage in deception in order to bring a suspect safely into custody. If they had simply directed the plane land without any explanation, the suspect would know the game was up and might try to hijack the plane or threaten the flight crew in his desperation to escape. But by using a bomb threat cover-story, the suspect might be a bit more subdued since there was still a chance that passengers would be transferred to another flight in Minsk without ever passing through immigration or being identified.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

What Belarus did was an act of war. Ryanair is an Irish company, the planes are registered in Ireland which makes them sovereign Irish territory. But Ireland has no means to retaliate and I am pretty sure that fact entered into Belarus' calculation to do what they did. Had they hijacked an airplane registered to a NATO member nation they would face a military reprisal. I have no idea why the pilot didn't call their bluff and run for the border. Belarus wasn't going to shoot down an airliner full of innocent people.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Disgraceful behavior by Lukashenko .

A Mafia state

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

It's not air piracy. They didn't burst into the cockpit and commandeer the plane. 

Are you kidding me? They faked a bomb threat and sent a Mig. You don’t get much more piracy than that.

Please, stop embarrassing yourself.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Since Raman Pratasevich, likes America so much, he is surely entitled to the full US human rights-democratic treatment; Abu Ghraib torture, extraordinary rendition waterboarding, drone-murder, and finally, perpetual incarceration without charges in the Guantanamo human rights prison camp.

-9 ( +6 / -15 )

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