What’s Happening With the Dissident Journalist Detained in Belarus, and How Are Putin And Hamas Involved?

Over the weekend, Belarusian air control forced a Ryanair flight traveling from Greece to Lithuania to divert and land in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. While the plane was grounded, Belarusian officials apparently arrested and detained journalist and dissident activist Roman Protasevich, who has been living in exile in Poland since 2019. Since then, the European Union has said it will impose sanctions, the EU and the US have called for Protasevich’s release, and the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled its support for Belarus’ actions. Mediaite breaks it all down.

In a nutshell, what’s happening?

On Sunday, May 23, the president of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, sent a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair plane heading from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, while the plane was over Belarusian air space, forcing the plane to land in the capital, Minsk.

According to reports, when the plane was on the ground in Belarus, dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was “seized” and arrested. Belarusian authorities have since posted a video of Protasevich, in which he said that authorities have treated him “correctly” and “lawfully.”

So, what exactly happened with the plane?

According to a statement from Ryanair, the popular low-cost airline based out of Ireland, the crew was notified by Belarusian air traffic controllers of a “potential security threat on board and were instructed to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk.”

“The aircraft landed safely and passengers were offloaded while security checks were completed by local authorities,” the statement continued. “Nothing untoward was found and authorities cleared the aircraft to depart together with passengers and crew after approx. 7hrs on the ground in Minsk.”

After noting that the plane landed safely in Vilnius, Ryanair said “we apologise sincerely to all affected passengers for this regrettable delay, which was outside Ryanair’s control.”

What the statement doesn’t mention is the fact that after the plane landed, as the passengers were having their luggage inspected after having been ordered to get out of the plane, Protasevich was arrested and did not re-board the plane – and it appeared that he had a sense of what was coming.

According to the New York Times, Protasevich “started to panic” once it was announced that the plane would be landing in Minsk. That announcement came about 15 minutes after the Ryanair plane had been diverted.

“He panicked because we were about to land in Minsk,” Marius Rutkauskas, who was sitting one row ahead of Protasevich, told the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT upon arrival in Vilnius, the Times reported. “He said: ‘I know that death penalty awaits me in Belarus.’”

Another passenger told AFP that “it was clear that he was very much afraid,” the Times reported. “It looked like if the window had been open, he would have jumped out of it.”

One passenger told a Lithuanian news website that the pilot was “visibly nervous” during the landing in Minsk, according to the Times, and another told a news website that once they were on the ground in Belarus, it became apparent that the alleged “security threat” was just a ruse.

Protasevich’s partner, Sofia Sapega, was also not allowed to reboard the flight, the Times reported.

Lukashenko’s press service had a different story, saying that the president, often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” ordered a fighter jet to escort the plane to Minsk after a bomb threat, the Times reported.

No bomb was found on board. Apparently, some passengers learned about the bomb threat hours after the incident, when they had internet access, the Times report said.

The chief executive of Ryanair has since called the incident a “state-sponsored hijacking.”

Can Belarus just do that?

According to international aviation law, apparently, yes – but only if Belarus truly believed there was a threat to the plane over Belarusian airspace, and did not manufacture that threat, according to a Washington Post analysis.

International rules governing aviation safety, known as the Chicago Convention, state that countries have “complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above (their) territory,” the Post said. Belarus is a signatory to these rules.

But Belarus could have violated these rules “if it manufactured the threat and forced the plane to land in Minsk,” the Post said. Another possible violation would have occurred if Belarus did not manufacture the threat, “but still forced the plane to land in Minsk for purposes that were not related to the threat.”

Who is the journalist at the center of all of this?

Roman Protasevich is a 26-year-old dissident journalist, who has long been protesting the Lukashenko government, according to a Washington Post report. He is the editor of the news platform Nexta, which publishes on the secure direct-messaging platform Telegram. Nexta, which reportedly has some 2 million users, provided information and videos during protests against Lukashenko’s government.

Protasevich studied journalism in Belarus, worked for European Radio and other news organizations, and was named a fellow in a joint US-Czech program that offers training and mentorship to young journalists from Eastern Europe and Russia, the Post reported.

In 2019, Protasevich fled Belarus for Poland, where he was granted political asylum. He continued to run Nexta from there. In 2020, after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in an election widely condemned as fraudulent, Nexta was key to coordinating peaceful protests against Lukashenko, led by opposition presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

He was on the Ryanair plane after having attended an economic conference in Greece, which Tikhanovskaya also attended, according to the Times.

The Belarusian security agency, called the KGB, had placed Protasevich’s name on a list of terrorists. If he is accused and convicted of terrorism, Protasevich could face the death penalty. He also faces charges of inciting public disorder and social hatred, which could land him in prison for more than 12 years.

Is Russia involved?

It’s unclear. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists that Belarus had taken an “absolutely reasonable approach” in forcing the plane to land, although the Kremlin itself declined to comment on the incident.

However, Russia has been a financial – and ideological – backer of the Lukashenko regime, and offered Russian police support following the 2020 Belarus elections, and some analysts believe that Putin could have been behind the entire incident.

“Analysts at the German Council on Foreign Relations believe that Putin’s Russia could have been ‘testing a new method of ‘rogue’ action, using Belarus as a testing ground,’” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Others have speculated that Belarus would not have taken such action without Russian approval, while some believe that the Russians “could have been security agents involved in the operation to deliver Pratasevich to the Belarusian authorities,” the report said.

According to the Times, the Ryanair plane was “surrounded by Soviet-looking officials in green uniforms, along with dogs, fire crews and technical workers from the airport” upon landing in Minsk.

Is Hamas involved?

This is also unclear. Belarus claims that it received a letter from Hamas claiming that it planted a bomb on the flight. According to a senior Belarus transport official, the letter said: “We, the soldiers of Hamas, demand that Israel cease fire in the Gaza Strip. We demand that the European Union renounces its support for Israel in this war … A bomb is planted on this flight. If you do not fulfill our demands, the bomb will explode over Vilnius on May 23.”

Hamas denied involvement, and instead suggested that “suspicious parties” might be behind the alleged threat.

“We don’t resort to these methods, which could be the doing of some suspicious parties that aim to demonize Hamas and foil the state of world sympathy with our Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was announced May 20, and took effect May 21.

Is the US doing anything about this?

Monday evening, President Joe Biden called the incident a “direct affront to international norms” and demanded Protasavich’s release and an international investigation.

“The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal of Mr. Pratasevich,” Biden said in a statement. “This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and freedom of the press.”

“The United States joins countries around the world in calling for his release,” Biden said, adding: “I join the many calls for an international investigation to ascertain the complete facts of the case.”

What about the EU?

EU leaders have demanded the release of Protasevich and Sapega, with several of them calling the incident a “hijacking” and “state-sponsored terrorism,” and called for a new round of sanctions against Belarus.

The EU has also called on all EU-based airlines to stop flying over Belarus, and to begin the process of banning Belarusian airlines from flying over EU airspace or landing in its airports.

The EU has previously imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and some of his associates after the 2020 election, which European officials have said was neither free nor fair, according to the Times.