The Foreign Affairs Minister has described the forced grounding of a flight in Belarus as ‘state sponsored aviation piracy’.
Ryanair's flight was going from Greece to Lithuania.
However authorities forced it to divert to Minsk, so an opposition activist could be arrested.
Authorities in Belarus may also have removed his girlfriend from the flight.
Ryanair still flying over Belarus. https://t.co/4Yeg4G1AEk pic.twitter.com/SJI2CqdjcK
— Ben Finnegan (@_BenFinnegan) May 24, 2021
Belarus Has "Effectively Kidnapped" This Person
Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Coveney, says the activist was effectively kidnapped.
"When they landed there was one person effectively arrested, taken off the plane."
"Which certainly would not be standard procedure if there was a potential bomb on board."
"Five or six people effectively left the plane, only one of them was arrested.
"Which would suggest that the others were secret service people.""
"So this is effectively a state kidnapping."
"This could happen to me."
Belarusian Opposition Leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says she "couldn't believe" the Lukashenko regime endangered the lives of the 171 Ryanair flight passengers "just to kidnap" Raman Pratasevich.
Latest: https://t.co/ZfJViRSPbm pic.twitter.com/X5mDsGulRz— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 24, 2021
It Was Scary For All On Board - O'Leary
Meanwhile, the CEO of Ryanair says it was subject to a 'state sponsored hijack'.
The European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen has condemned the situation too.
While the European Union has called for an international investigation.
Michael O’Leary says it was scary for all on board.
"They were held under armed guard, they had their bags searched."
"It appears that the intent of the Russian authorities was to remove a journalist and his travelling companion."
"We believe there was also some KGB agents offloaded off the aircraft as well."
"They Endangered 171 Lives For This"
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the opposition leader in Belarus.
"We couldn't have expected that the regime would endanger the lives of 171 international passengers, just to kidnap one person."
