The consequences of the Belarusian government’s using a military fighter jet to force a commercial flight to land so it could arrest a dissident journalist continue to mount as Lithuanian authorities barred incoming flights from traveling Belarusian airspace, Reuters reports.
The Ryanair Boeing 737 was diverted to Minsk when it was just 10 miles from the Lithuanian border by a Belarusian MiG-29 the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, personally ordered to intercept the flight so government authorities could detain Roman Protasevich, a blogger and critic of Lukashenko whom the Belarusian government says organized protests about recent elections. Protasevich was detained by government officials after the plane landed in Minsk.
The Belarusian security forces initially claimed they got a tip that there were explosives on board the plane, but not explosives were found. On Monday, Belarusian officials attempted to support their bomb claim by halting the boarding of a Lufthansa plane bound for Frankfort, Germany from Minsk, claiming they received a bomb threat. No bomb was found and the plane took off about one hour later than scheduled.