Exclusive: Belarusian President Lukashenko sued for hijacking a plane with criminal intent
Following the diversion of a Ryanair flight carrying 126 passengers last weekend, including Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich who was subsequently detained, Reporters Without Borders is suing the country’s president in a Lithuanian court.
The media advocacy group filed a suit in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, urging the country’s prosecutors to investigate Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for ‘hijacking of an aircraft with criminal intent.’
“We decided to file a complaint against Lukashenko himself because he was the direct instigator of this act of hijacking for terrorist purposes, and the term is not excessive,” Jeanne Cavelier, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk at Reporters without Borders, told City A.M. this afternoon.
“By this unprecedented act, Lukashenko wanted to intensify intimidation of the public, especially journalists,” she said.
Last weekend, the Ryanair plane, which was bound for Lithuania, was forced to land in Minsk after Belarus claimed a bomb threat to the aircraft.
The Lithuanian criminal code penalises hijacking a plane ‘by threatening the lives or health of the crew or passengers’ and defines ‘terrorist aim’ as the ‘intent to intimidate the public or part of the public.’
Cavelier is currently in Vilnius and she has met with Martynas Jovaiša, the chief prosecutor of the department for investigating organised crime and corruption, Lithuanian deputy foreign-minister Mantas Adomėnas and Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
“Tsikhanouskaya told us she was very concerned for her country’s journalists after the hijacking and Raman’s arrest, and stressed the importance of international campaigning,” she disclosed.
“In our view, there can be no doubt about Lukashenko’s intention of terrorising the journalistic community. The tragic fate suffered by Raman and his girlfriend Sofia confirms this,” Cavelier added.
‘A bloody rebellion’
Earlier this week, Lukashenko said that Pratasevich, who was pulled off the plane that was grounded in Minsk, had been plotting a “bloody rebellion”.
The president went on to accuse the West of starting a “hybrid war” against him, in his first public comments since the incident on Sunday.
“As we predicted, our ill-wishers from outside the country and from inside the country changed their methods of attack on the state,” Lukashenko told parliament.
“They have crossed many red lines and have abandoned common sense and human morals,” he said, referring to a “hybrid war” without explaining what he meant by the comment.
Belarus has been subject to EU and US sanctions since Lukashenko cracked down on pro-democracy protests after a disputed election last year.
The leader has been in power since 1994 and faced weeks of mass protests last year after he was declared the winner of a presidential election that his opponents said was rigged.