Belarus ‘hijacks’ Ryanair flight to detain activist

Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair flight departing from Athens, Greece, to make an emergency landing in the capital of Minsk Sunday. When the plane landed, police arrested 26-year-old Raman Pratasevich, a prominent activist. After seven hours on the ground, the flight continued to its original destination of Vilnius, Lithuania.

What triggered the diversion? The Belarusian presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the move and asked a MiG-29 fighter jet to follow the plane after receiving word of a bomb threat. Officials later confirmed no explosives on the flight. Ryanair said in a statement that Belarusian air traffic control asked the plane to change its course. Pratasevich, who is based in Poland, co-founded the Telegram channel Nexta, which helped organize demonstrations against Lukashenko. European leaders condemned the incident as an “act of state terror and kidnapping,” and will meet on Monday to discuss the next step. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was “shocking” and endangered passengers on the flight, some of them Americans.

Dig deeper: Read Julia Seymour’s World Tour report on the protests against Lukashenko’s leadership.