KYIV: A creator of a messaging program station that’s been a vital data conduit for competitions of Belarus’ authoritarian president has been arrested Sunday following an airliner where he was traveling was redirected to Belarus due to a bomb threat.
The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko personally arranged that a MiG-29 fighter airplane follow the Ryanair plane- travel in Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania- on the Minsk airport.
The Belarusian Interior Ministry stated Raman Pratasevich was detained at the airport. Pratasevich is currently a co-founder of this Telegram messaging program’s Nexta station, which Belarus past year announced extremist after it had been used to help arrange important protests from Lukashenko.
Pratasevich, who’d fled the state for Poland, faces charges that can carry a prison sentence of up to 15 decades.
The presidential press service said that the bomb threat had been received while the airplane was Belarusian land; officials said no explosives were discovered aboard. There was no immediate comment from Ryanair.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya predicted about the International Civil Aviation Organization to Start an investigation.
“It’s completely clear that this can be an performance by the particular solutions to hijack an aircraft to be able to arrest activist and blogger Raman Pratasevich,” she explained in a declaration. “Not one man who awakens over Belarus could be certain of his security.”
Months of protests emerged following last August’s presidential elections that official results imply gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office.
Police cracked down on the protests aggressively, detaining several 30,000 individuals and beating a lot of these.
Though protests died down through wintermonths, Belarus has continued to take action against the opposition and independent news websites. Last week, 11 team members of this TUT.by news site were arrested by authorities.
