Ryanair hijacking: Belarus journalist who was arrested says he is ‘confessing’ to crimes
Belarus journalist who was dragged off hijacked Ryanair plane with his girlfriend appears on state TV ‘with a broken nose’ to ‘confess’ to crimes – after colleagues said he was almost certainly being tortured
- Roman Protasevich, 26, has appeared on state TV – the first time he has been seen since his arrest on Sunday
- Dissident journalist said he is ‘cooperating’ with police, is being treated ‘within the law’ and has ‘confessed’
- But father Dzmitry said it seems his son’s nose is broken and he is wearing makeup to hide bruising on his face
- Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has been forced to appear in similar videos, said the ‘confession’ was made under duress and that she fears for Protasevich’s life
- EU has cut off flights to and from Belarus in a first round of sanctions, calling the hijacking ‘scandalous’
A dissident journalist facing the death penalty in his native Belarus after his plane was hijacked by the regime so he could be arrested has appeared on TV to ‘confess’ to organising mass protests – as allies say he is almost certainly being tortured.
Roman Protasevich, 26, a prominent critic of dictator Alexander Lukashenko, was arrested Sunday after a Ryanair flight he was taking with girlfriend Sofia Sapega from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by a Belarus fighter jet and forced to land in Minsk on the pretext of a bomb threat.
A video of Mr Protasevich has now appeared in which he says he is being held at ‘Detention Centre No1 in Minsk’, has no health problems and that ‘the attitude of employees towards me is as correct as possible and according to the law’ – statements that were almost certainly made under duress.
Wearing a black hoodie and with a pack of cigarettes next to his left hand, Mr Protasevich adds: ‘I continue cooperating with investigators and am confessing to having organised mass unrest in the city of Minsk.’
But father Dzmitry Protasevich said it appears that his son’s nose is broken in the video, and that he seems to be wearing heavy make-up to cover up bruising on the left side of his face – with some marks visible on his forehead.
‘It is very likely that his nose is broken, because the shape of it is changed and there’s much powder on the front of it, all of the left side of his face has powder, there’s some greasy stuff on the left side,’ he said, adding that ‘it’s not his pack of cigarettes on the table – he doesn’t smoke these.’
‘I think he was forced,’ Mr Protasevich Sr said. ‘It’s not his words, it’s not his intonation of speech, he is acting very reserved and you can see he is nervous.’
Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has been forced to appeared in similar state-sponsored videos, also said the footage was made under ‘physical and moral pressure’ and said she fears for his life
In response to the hijacking, EU leaders have agreed new sanctions on Belarus including cutting off air travel to or from the country – with European Council president Charles Michel saying that Minsk is playing ‘Russian roulette with the lives of innocent civilians’.
Roman Protasevich, who was dragged off a Ryanair civilian airliner and arrested by the Belarusian regime, has said that he is ‘confessing’ to charges of organising protests and cooperating with authorities in a video being circulated on state TV, left. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pictured right
Opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, 26, (pictured after he was separated from other passengers) was hauled off the plane and arrested with his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, after the flight from Greece to Lithuania made the emergency landing in Minsk
Opposition journalist Roman Protasevich’s girlfriend Sofia Sapega who was also detained
The airliner full of tourists made an emergency landing at Minsk Airport after being escorted by a MiG-29 fighter jet amid reports of a bomb on board
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference at the EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels
Ryanair flight FR4978 had been flying from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania when it was escorted by a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet to Belarus amid fake reports of an IED on board. It was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk Airport, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Roman Protasevich
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen added: ‘This is an attack on democracy. This is an attack on freedom of expression. And this is an attack on European sovereignty. And this outrageous behaviour needs a strong answer.’
US President Joe Biden on Monday called the forced diversion of the commercial passenger jet ‘a direct affront to international norms’ and condemned the action as an ‘outrageous incident.’ In his statement, he also expressed outrage over Protasevich’s video statement that aired on Belarusian state TV.
‘This outrageous incident and the video Mr Protasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press,’ Biden said in a statement.
‘The United States joins countries around the world in calling for his release, as well as for the release of the hundreds of political prisoners who are being unjustly detained by the Lukashenka regime.’
The hijacking unfolded around 9.45am GMT on Sunday as Ryanair flight FR4978 was flying through Belarus airspace on its way from Athens to Vilnius, when a Belarus MiG-29 fighter jet intercepted it.
Belarus authorities claimed they had received a bomb threat from Hamas – the group which operates in Gaza – threatening to blow up the plane in the skies above Vilnius, and informed the pilot of the threat.
According to officials in Belarus, the pilot then made the decision to divert to Minsk rather than continue to Vilnius or divert to another airport.
But observers say this makes no sense, as Vilnius was by far the closest airport – theorising that the fighter jet may have threatened to shoot down the passenger plane. Belarus denies this.
Hamas has denied there was any bomb threat, and has no known ability to operate outside of Gaza and Israel. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also poured scorn on the idea, calling it ‘completely implausible’.
Around half an hour later, the flight landed in Minsk where the passengers were taken off and had their baggage searched.
Witnesses say Mr Protasevich told them he was going to be arrested and faced ‘the death penalty’ before he was taken to a waiting SUV and sped away. Miss Sapega was also arrested.
He is now being held on extremism charges relating to mass protests following last year’s election – which is widely viewed as rigged – while she is being held on unknown charges.
Flight logs show three other passengers also disembarked in Minsk, amid claims these were Belarusian KGB agents sent to oversee the operation.
Initially it was thought that the agents could have been from the namesake Russian KGB, but Moscow has denied any involvement.
The Kremlin says it is seeking consular access to Miss Sapega, who is a Russian citizen, and has not yet spoken with her inside jail.
The trio who departed in Minsk have since appeared on Belarus state TV where they were presented as two Belarus nationals – Sergey Kulakov and Alexandra Stabredova – and a third Greek man, Zisis Yason.
The group claimed they had been due to fly to Minsk anyway and had begged to be kept off the flight when it returned to the skies, around six hours after it first touched down. They did not directly address claims about being undercover agents.
Separately, the White House said that national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday spoke Ms Tsikhanouskaya.
Sullivan told the opposition leader that the US ‘in coordination with the EU and other allies and partners, will hold the Lukashenka regime to account.’
Two US senators urged the Biden administration to prohibit U.S. airlines from entering Belarus airspace because of the incident. ‘We must protect innocent passengers from despotic regimes and stand in solidarity with dissidents who are being targeted,’ Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a joint statement.
Protasevich, an outspoken critic of Belarusian Lukashenko – dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictator’ – was wanted for his role in organising massive protests against him after rigged elections last year.
The Belarus Interior Ministry said Protasevich is being held in the capital Minsk and dismissed unconfirmed reports that he was hospitalised.
Earlier, Belarusian media reported that Protasevich’s mother received unconfirmed reports that her son was in hospital and in critical condition because of heart problems.
ROMAN PROTASEVICH: OPPOSITION BLOGGER FORCED INTO EXILE
NEXTA, Protasevich’s outlet, was closely involved in reporting a wave of opposition protests that last year threatened to topple Lukashenko, before he was given backing by Vladimir Putin
Protasevich, 26, has long been a thorn in the side of Belarus’s hardline dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
He worked as an editor at the Poland-based Nexta Live channel, which is based on the Telegram messenger app and has over 1 million subscribers.
The channel, which is openly hostile to Lukashenko, played an important role in broadcasting huge opposition protests against the President last year.
Nexta also helped coordinate those same protests, which were sparked by anger over what the opposition said was a rigged presidential election.
The channel’s footage, which showed how harshly police cracked down on demonstrators, was used widely by international media at a time when the Belarusian authorities were reluctant to allow foreign media in.
In November Protasevich published a copy of an official Belarusian list of terrorists on which his name figured.
The listing said he was accused of organising mass riots while working at Nexta. He also stands accused of disrupting social order and of inciting social hatred. He regards the allegations, which could see him jailed for years, as unjustified political repression.
Protasevich fled Belarus for Poland in 2019 due to pressure from the authorities, according to Media Solidarity, a group that supports Belarusian journalists.
He moved his parents to Poland too after they were put under surveillance. He later relocated to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is also based.
Protasevich is currently editor-in-chief of a Belarusian political outlet hosted on the Telegram messaging app called ‘Belarus of the Brain’ which has around a quarter of a million subscribers.
He was flying back to Vilnius from Greece where he had spent time taking photographs of a visit there by Tsikhanouskaya. He had posted the pictures to social media before flying back.
‘This information does not correspond with reality,’ the ministry said on its Telegram channel.
It added that ‘the arrested person is in custody’ and is being held in Detention Centre No1 in central Minsk.
‘The administration of the institution has not received any complaints about his health,’ the ministry said.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab raised the possibility of direct Russian involvement in the diversion of the civilian airliner, telling MPs: ‘It’s very difficult to believe that this kind of action could have been taken without at least the acquiescence of the authorities in Moscow.’
Yale University History Professor Timothy Snyder also added fuel to rumours of Russian participation in the plot, claiming in a tweet: ‘Belarus would not have hijacked an EU plane without Russian approval’.
But Russia threw its weight behind Belarus, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying that Lukashenko was taking an ‘absolutely reasonable approach’ to the detention of Protasevich.
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also mocked the Western indignation at the alleged hijacking, writing on Facebook she was ‘shocked that the West calls the incident in Belarusian air space ‘shocking” and accusing Western nations of ‘kidnappings, forced landings, and illegal arrests’.
Lukashenko, an ally of Vladimir Putin, personally gave the ‘unequivocal order’ to ‘make the plane do a U-turn and land,’ according to a statement by Belarus’s presidential news service.
Tsikhanouskaya called for wider sanctions on the Lukashenko’s regime after Protasevich’s arrest, which she said was ‘the result of impunity’.
‘For nine months already we have been fighting against the regime after fraudulent elections, but the regime still feels impunity and you see they use such awful methods of kidnapping people,’ she said.
‘We have to put much more pressure on this regime for them to stop violence and to release political prisoners.’
She said she though it ‘unbelievable’ the regime had lasted long under these circumstances, especially because ‘the whole county is against the regime’.
‘The only question is, how many victims will there be during this fight for freedom and for democracy? I’m sure that these changes will come soon’, she added.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 this morning, journalist and historian Anne Applebaum said that Lukashenko had almost certainly ‘made a decision’ in advance of hijacking the flight that sanctions against his regime were worth it in order to arrest Protasevich.
‘He doesn’t mind being cut off from the rest of the world and he doesn’t mind being totally reliant on Russia,’ she said, adding that ‘[Russia] will now be his only ally, the only country that will buy goods from Belarus, the only country that will trade with him.
‘He has decided that remaining in power, the fate of his regime and probably his personal safety matters to him more than the rest of the country.’
But she added that sanctions are still an important tool that could pressure elites within Belarus to rebel and oust Lukashenko.
‘I think that’s what the Belarus opposition wants to have happen,’ she said.
Aviation experts have claimed that Belarus threatened to shoot down the Athens to Vilnius Ryanair flight unless it did not land immediately (pictured: a MiG-29 fighter jet involved in the incident arriving back at base in Belarus). Their presence has stoked fears of Russian secret services involvement in a murky operation to arrest opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, 26, a passenger on the plane who was detained with his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, in Minsk
Journalists and Belarusian activists wait to see passengers of the Ryanair plane carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich at the International Airport outside Vilnius, Lithuania
Belarusian dog handler checks luggage from the Ryanair flight in Minsk International Airport on May 23
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was among voices condemning what he called ‘state-sponsored piracy’ by Belarus, tying Russian into the operation.
‘I think it’s very frightening for the crew, for the passengers who were held under armed guard, had their bags searched,’ he told Newstalk.
‘It was clear it appears that the intent of the Russian authorities was to remove a journalist and his traveling companion. We believe there was also some KGB agents offloaded from the aircraft as well.’
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat this morning called it ‘a warlike act,’ joining the British, Irish and American governments in their condemnation. ‘This was a flight between two NATO members and between two EU members,’ the Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman told Radio 4. ‘If it’s not an act of war, it’s certainly a warlike act.’
Mr Raab, the British foreign secretary, vowed to hold Lukashenko accountable ‘for his outlandish actions’ with further sanctions and demanded the ‘immediate release of Protasevich.’
His Irish counterpart Simon Coveney was also withering, saying that Dublin – where Ryanair is headquartered – would not allow the ‘state-sponsored piracy’ to go unpunished.
‘We cannot allow this incident to pass on the basis of warnings or strong press releases,’ Coveney told RTE. ‘I think there has to be real edge to the sanctions that are applied on the back of this. This was effectively aviation piracy, state-sponsored.’
Moscow defended its ally, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov calling Lukashenko’s action an ‘absolutely reasonable approach.’
‘A representative of the Belarusian foreign ministry… stressed the readiness of the Belarusian authorities to act on the issue in a transparent manner and to follow all international rules,’ Lavrov said during a press conference following a meeting with his Greek counterpart.
‘I think this is an absolutely reasonable approach.’
He called on the global community to ‘soberly assess the situation’.
Earlier Monday, authorities in Belarus insisted they had acted legally when they diverted the flight. They instead accused the West of making unfounded claims for political reasons.
Several European airlines including AirBaltic, Air Austria and Wizz Air were avoiding Belarusian air space as EU leaders met in Brussels ton discuss furthers sanctions against Lukashenko.
AirBaltic said it was monitoring the situation and would avoid Belarus airspace until it ‘becomes clearer’. It added: ‘the safety and health of our passengers and employees in the main priority’.
The Foreign Affairs Committee has called for a complete flight ban on Belarusian airspace. MP Tugendhat said he wanted to see a flight ban ‘to protect our citizens from any potential repeat of this event’.
Tugendhat explained he was calling for a ban on all flights going into, or out of, Belarus, until Sunday’s hijacking was resolved.
He added a call for ‘immediate sanctions on the Lukashenko regime’, including on the Yamal-Europe oil pipeline.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said further sanctions were being considered against the Lukashenko administration and Belarus’ ambassador in London had been summoned for a dressing down.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he had instructed the Civil Aviation Authority to request airlines avoid Belarusian airspace ‘in order to keep passengers safe’.
He also suspended the operating permit for Belavia, the country’s state-owned airline.
Ryanair boss O’Leary (left) described the act as ‘state-sponsored hijacking,’ adding that ‘we believe there were some KGB agents offloaded at the airport as well.’ Tory MP Tom Tugendhat (right) called it ‘a warlike act,’ joining the British and US governments, among other Western nations, who have condemned the grounding of the Ryanair flight.
A Lithuanian passenger on board the plane, who gave his name as Mantas, told how Protasevich jumped from his seat as the captain announced the plane was being diverted.
‘Roman stood up, opened the luggage compartment, took luggage and was trying to split things,’ he said.
‘I think he made a mistake. There were plenty of people so he could give the things to me or other passengers and not the girlfriend, who was also I think arrested.’
Mantas was speaking to Reuters after a day-long ordeal that began in Athens and finally ended late in the evening in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, after a stopover of more than seven hours in Minsk.
Another exhausted passenger, speaking to reporters without giving her name, said Protasevich looked ‘super scared’.
‘I looked directly into his eyes and he was very sad,’ she said. Protasevich was immediately separated on arrival in Minsk and checks of luggage using sniffer dogs turned up nothing.
‘We saw that Roman was stopped due to some things in the luggage,’ Mantas said, adding that the other passengers also had their luggage checked and were taken by bus to the terminal where they spent several hours waiting to reboard the plane.
‘We saw from the window that Roman is standing alone, and one policeman with dog was trying to find something (in his luggage).’
Another passenger, who also did not give his name, told Lithuanian media that Protasevich had identified himself to Belarusian security officials on arrival. ‘I saw how his passport was taken away. He took off his mask and said: ‘I’m so-and-so and I’m the reason why all this is going on.”
Aviation experts revealed that the passenger plane had been significantly closer to Vilnius than it was to Minsk when it was forced to turn around, making a mockery of the Belarusian claims that it needed to make an emergency landing for a bomb threat.
Leading opposition figure Pavel Latushko said: ‘The air traffic controllers of Minsk-2 airport threatened to shoot at the Ryanair civilian plane with passengers on board. For this reason, a military fighter MiG-29 of Belarus Air Force was sent.
‘This proves again that this incident was an act of state terrorism… It demands an immediate reaction of European authorities and the entire world community.’
Ryanair did not deny the claims this morning, telling MailOnline: ‘Ryanair condemns the unlawful actions of Belarusian authorities who diverted Ryanair’s flight FR4978 to Minsk yesterday (23 May), which was an act of aviation piracy.
‘This is now being dealt with by EU safety and security agencies & NATO. Ryanair is fully cooperating with them and we cannot comment further for security reasons.’
Latushko heads the National Anti-Crisis Management, a shadow government set up last year by the Belarusian Coordination Council for the peaceful transfer of power following the ‘rigged’ 2020 election, widely seen as stolen by President Alexander Lukashenko.
He is a former culture minister of Belarus and was the country’s ambassador to France, Spain and Portugal before joining the opposition.
The claim about the shooting had come via the Belarus civil aviation authority, he said.
Moscow-based aviation expert Vadim Lukashevich said he too believed that a threat to shoot down the Ryanair flight had been made.
He said: ‘To make it crystal clear – the pilots of the Ryanair plane that was forced to land in Belarus were pulling towards the destination Vilnius until the last possible moment.
‘They had to turn back under the threat of a fighter jet when the distance to Vilnius airport was only 45 miles away and only 19 miles to the Lithuanian border.’
He claimed the Ryanair pilots were ‘heading towards Lithuania without slowing down… they were escaping from the fighter jet, and they turned back just two minutes before crossing the Lithuanian border. ‘
Flightradar data showed the plane had not slowed to descend at the usual height on this route but appeared to be flying as fast as possible to the border – before abruptly turning back, seemingly on the orders of the MiG-29.
Mantas, a Lithuanian passenger of Ryanair flight FR4978, speaks to the media after arriving at Vilnius Airport, Lithuania
The Belarus authorities claimed its bomb-disposal squad was examining the plane
He is convinced that ‘the fighter had permission to shoot’, he said.
‘And I am absolutely sure that the crew of the passenger aircraft turned around only after receiving a notification from the Belarusian fighter that, in case of disobedience, it would open fire before the passenger plane left the airspace of Belarus.’
Meanwhile, a leading Russian investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov revealed that as well as Protasevich’s girlfriend Sapega, four Russian passengers who had been on the flight to Lithuania left it in Minsk.
He claimed: ‘Four citizens of Russia did not continue the flight to Vilnius.
‘This operation was escorted by Russian special services.’
One of Russia’s most respected independent journalists Alexey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Echo Moscow radio, said: ‘Four more Russians didn’t follow on to Vilnius, but left the plane in Minsk, and dissolved into the nature.’
Another source suggests there were three not four Russians who left the plane, but in any event their identities are not known.
Sapega is a student of the European Humanities University, now based in Vilnius, after its forced closure by Lukashenko’s authorities in Minsk.
She is a Russian citizen, and the university where she studies international law has expressed deep concern for her fate.
Political detainees in Belarus are frequently tortured by the KGB secret service and police.
A passenger named Raselle, a beautician, was videoed on the plane when it landed in Minsk posted a message to say that Protasevich had said to the flight attendant: ‘Don’t do this, they will kill me. I am refugee.
‘He answered: We must, we have no choice, it’s in Ryanair legal agreements.’
Lithuania – a former Soviet state now in the EU and NATO – has led Western calls for action against its neighbour, Belarus.
‘It is an unprecedented attack against the international community: a civilian plane and its passengers have been hijacked by military force, and a Belarusian citizen has been abducted, whose life and health are in danger,’ said a government statement.
‘It is unjustifiable that ordinary international travellers have been held hostage to the regime’s aggression.
‘This is the act of state terrorism directed against the security of citizens of the European Union and other countries, civil society of Belarus seeking asylum from the regime’s persecution, as well as international civil aviation.
‘Lithuania will demand a clear and uncompromising response from the international community.’
Mr Raab said in a statement on Monday: ‘The UK condemns yesterday’s actions by the Belarusian authorities, who arrested journalist Roman Protasevich on the basis of a ruse, having forced his flight to land in Minsk. Mr Lukashenko must be held to account for his outlandish actions.
A woman covered with an old Belarusian national flag holds a phone with a sticker in colors of an old Belarusian national flag as she waits to see passengers of the Ryanair plane carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich
‘The UK calls for the immediate release of Mr Protasevich and other political prisoners held in Belarus. The UK is working with our allies on a coordinated response, including further sanctions. The UK also calls for the ICAO Council to meet urgently to consider the regime’s flouting of the international rules safeguarding civil aviation.’
The 27 EU leaders open a two-day summit later Monday and the issue immediately shot to the top the agenda amid united condemnation of Lukashenko.
‘The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences,’ EU chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted. ‘Those responsible for the Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned.’
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called it ‘yet another blatant attempt by the Belarusian authorities to silence all opposition voices.’ He called the diversion of the plane an ‘inadmissible step’ highlighting a further worsening in relations between both sides.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Monday bristled at what it described as ‘belligerent’ EU statements, insisting that the country’s authorities acted ‘in full conformity with international rules.’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the incident ‘shocking’ and accused the Belarusian government of endangering the lives of those aboard the aircraft, including some Americans. He called for the release of Pratasevich and for the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization to review the incident.
Police officers detained Roman Protasevich after he was attempting to cover a rally in Minsk, Belarus on 26 March 2017
‘I saw this Belarusian guy with girlfriend sitting right behind us. He freaked out when the pilot said the plane is diverted to Minsk. He said there’s death penalty awaiting him there,’ passenger Marius Rutkauskas said after the plane finally arrived in Vilnius.
‘We sat for an hour after the landing. Then they started releasing passengers and took those two. We did not see them again.’
Pratasevich was a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app’s Nexta channel, which played a prominent role in helping organise major protests against Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian authorities have designated it as extremist and levered charges of inciting riots against Pratasevich, who could face 15 years in prison if convicted.
Months of protests in Belarus were fueled by Lukashenko’s election to a sixth presidential term in an August vote that the opposition denounced as rigged.
More than 34,000 people have been arrested in Belarus since August, and thousands were brutally beaten.
