Ryanair flight carrying exiled Belarusian journalist forced to land in Minsk

Belarusian authorities allegedly ordered a Ryanair flight to make an emergency landing in Minsk and then arrested an exiled opposition journalist on board who faces the death penalty.

Roman Protasevich is a founder and former editor of Nexta, a social media channel that reported on mass protests that broke out last summer against dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus last year designated Nexta an extremist organisation and has called for his extradition from Poland, where the channel’s editorial team is based.

Minsk airport said a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land because of a bomb threat. Passengers and their baggage were taken from the plane and checked.

No bomb was found.

During the check, officials detained Protasevich, Nexta reported.

It was not immediately clear who reported the bomb threat.

A Lithuanian official said they had received no information about a potential explosive and said they believed the plane had to land because of a conflict between a passenger and a member of the crew.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, alleged that Minsk authorities had deliberately diverted the plane to arrest the journalist.

“The regime forced the landing ... to arrest (the) journalist and activist,” she wrote on Twitter.

Ms Tikhanovskaya called for his immediate release and further sanctions against Belarus.

Mr Protasevich had accompanied Ms Tikhanovskaya during a visit to Greece and meetings with officials there, according to his posts on social media.

The opposition leader herself has been based in Lithuania after fleeing Belarus last summer, after apparent threats to her children.

She stood against Mr Lukashenko in presidential elections, which she says she would have won had they been free and fair.

The arrest comes amid a wider crackdown by Belarusian authorities on opposition media.

This month, officials raided the offices of the independent outlet Tut.by, arrested a number of editorial staff, and blocked access to the site.

The international community has condemned the crackdown.

Christophe Deloire, the head of Reporters Without Borders, called the moves against Tut.by “a new attempt to silence the most well-known independent media in Belarus”, and called on the UN to act to ensure freedom of information.

Protests broke out in Belarus after Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 27 years, claimed victory in a rigged election in August last year.

Police responded with violence to those rallies, using teargas, batons and stun grenades on demonstrators and arresting thousands.

Several top opposition figures, journalists and activists were arrested or forced into exile.