The US government called for a speedy meeting of the International Civil Aviation Group regarding the rerouting of the Ryanair plane in Belarus on Sunday and the detention of an opposition journalist who was on board and strongly condemned Belarus for that.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for the immediate release of Roman Protasevic on Sunday and said that “the traumatic act committed by the Lukashenka regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including US citizens”.
Blinken said the United States supports “the ICAO Council meeting as soon as possible to analyze this event.”
A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius in Minsk landed on Sunday due to explosives on board. The Belarusian authorities confirmed that they had launched the MiG-29 fighter on the passenger machine.
According to unofficial information, the pilots were forced to land at Minsk airport with a military aircraft. Later, opposition activist, journalist and blogger Raman Pratasevic, who is a former co-editor of the opposition channel Next, was arrested there, which the authorities consider “extremist”.
The flight arrived in Vilnius in the evening with a delay of more than eight hours. In addition to Pratasiewicz, his girlfriend was not on the plane, and according to exhibitions Bowie Latushko – four more.
Many countries, including Poland, condemned the actions of Belarus, accusing its authorities of violating international law, piracy, “state terrorism” and “hijacking the plane”, and demanded clarification of the circumstances of this event and a decisive reaction. From the international community.
