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A founder of a courier chain that has been a key data vector for the conflicting parties of Belarus’ authoritarian president arrested Sunday after a plane he was travelling on was diverted to Belarus due to a bomb scare.
The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko had ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to accompany Ryanair’s plane, which was traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, to Minsk Airport.
Belarus’ Interior Ministry said Raman Pratasevich had been arrested at the airport, co-founder of the Nexta channel of the Telegram messaging app, which Belarus declared last year as an extremist after being used to organize primary protests against Lukashenko.
Pratasevich, who fled the country for Poland, faces rates of up to 15 years in prison.
The presidential press service said the bomb risk gained while the plane flew over Belarusian territory; Authorities later said no explosives were discovered on board and that Ryanair made no immediate comment.
Opposition leader exiled Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya at the International Civil Aviation Organization to open an investigation.
“It is certainly transparent that this is a special operation to hijack a plane in order to stop activist and blogger Raman Pratasevich,” Raman Pratasevich said in a statement. “No single user flying over Belarus can be sure of their safety. “
Months of protests broke out after last August’s presidential election, the official effects of which showed Lukashenko in a sixth term.
Police seriously suppressed the protests, arrested some 30,000 more people and beat many of them.
Although the protests silenced the winter, Belarus continued to act against opposition and independent media. Last week, 11 staff members of the TUT. through news site were arrested by police.
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