DISINFO: The collective West is afraid of Pratasevich's testimony
SUMMARY
The collective West is afraid of the testimony of the arrested Belarusian blogger Raman Pratasevich. He was coordinating last year’s anti-presidential protests there and is facing criminal charges on three counts. Alyaksandr Lukashenka is protecting the Constitution and the interests of his country, which means that he is a strong leader. There was information that a bomb had been planted on the plane, where Pratasevich was on board, and Belarus’s special services were acting according to the rules. There have been similar cases before, like the forceful landing of Bolivian President Evo Morales's plane in Vienna in 2016 and the return of a plane with Ukrainian pro-Kremlin journalist Armen Martirosyan on board in 2016.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the forced diversion and landing of the Ryanair flight 4978 in Belarus and an attempt to denigrate Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
Roman Protasevich is a co-founded the opposition Nexta channel on Telegram, which played an important role in providing information and broadcasting huge opposition protests against the incumbent Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenko in 2020.
Protasevich fled Belarus for Poland in 2019 due to pressure from the authorities. He later relocated to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is also based.
Roman Pratasevich, was detained in Minsk airport when flying from Athens to Vilnius. On Sunday, May 23, 2021, the Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to turn back before crossing the Lithuanian border and land in the Belarusian capital. The pretext for landing in Minsk was a false report about the bomb on board. At the moment when the plane changed course, it was closer to Vilnius airport than to Minsk. The plane was forced by a Belarusian military aircraft to land in Minsk. Roman Protasevich was detained during a repeated security check of passengers.
The EU condemned Belarusian action against civil plane and the detention of Pratasevich. In a declaration on behalf of the EU on the forced diversion of Ryanair flight FR4978 to Minsk on 23 May 2021, the High Representative called for the immediate release of Mr Pratasevich. This was followed by a European Council statement, in which the EU leaders called for targeted individual and economic sanctions as well as to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by these.
In July 2013, Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to land in Austria, amid U.S. pressure, in a hunt for U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden, who was thought to be aboard. But, according to the Washington Post, unlike the Belarusian plot, which involved fighter jets and bomb threats, the Bolivian flight was brought down by bureaucracy: European nations refused it permission to enter their airspace, Bolivian officials later told reporters, leaving them with no clear route back home after a trip to Moscow. The plane subsequently landed in Austria because it needed to refuel, and Heinz Fischer, Austria’s president at the time, met with Morales at the airport.
See related disinformation messages alleging that there is more than enough evidence that Roman Protasevich is a professional media extremist; the Ryanair case is similar with the forced landing of Evo Morales' plane.