The plane was flying from Athens to Vilnius. However, while flying over our territory, the information that the airliner was mined was received. And although a screenshot of the route shows that the plane was almost over the border, the crew turned to Minsk with a request to land. We emphasize that the decision to land the plane in Belarus was made by the crew.
The situation was immediately reported to the President. Alexander Lukashenko gave the order to accept the flight and provide the crew with full assistance. In order to ensure safety and control, a fighter jet was taken into the air. After the landing of the passenger airliner, it flew back to the place of dislocation.
Later it was reported that the presence of an explosive device on board was not confirmed, and then there was another piece of breaking news. An extremist telegram channel owned by the fugitive extremist blogger Motolko said that the administrator of another extremist telegram channel, one of the creators of NEXTA, Roman Protasevich, was on the plane. According to our information, he had already managed to go through customs and border control without any problems and was detained by the police only after Motolko's photo had been published.
The Investigative Committee is deciding the issue of initiating a criminal case on the fact of false mining alert, but much more interesting is the criminal case under which Roman Protasevich will be prosecuted. He is charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, including organization of mass riots, incitement of social hatred, etc.
