(Warsaw) Poland accused the Belarusian secret service on Friday of being behind the hijacking in May of a Ryanair flight that led to the arrest of an opposition journalist who was on board.
Polish special services have investigated the Athens-Vilnius flight which made an emergency landing in Minsk due to an alleged bomb threat.
On board the plane registered in Poland were in particular Roman Protassevich, co-founder in exile of a popular opposition channel Nexta on Telegram, and his Russian companion, Sofia Sapega.
After landing in Minsk, Mr. Protassevich and his partner were immediately arrested and remain under house arrest.
During a press conference Friday, the Polish special services presented tapes coming, according to them, from the control tower of Minsk and proving that an officer of the Belarusian KGB was there at the time of the events and “gave orders to the tower air traffic controller ”.
This is evidence and other facts that make it clear that the hijacking of the Ryanair plane was a Belarusian special services operation aimed at arresting an opponent.
Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesperson for Polish special services
Mr Zaryn had said earlier in a statement that the KGB officer in the operations room “gave orders and made decisions regarding the landing in Minsk”, remaining “in telephone contact with someone he was dealing with. reported what was happening with the plane ”.
“It must be stressed that taking control of a control tower by a special services agent is an unprecedented thing,” Zaryn insisted.
In a tweet, he said that the conclusion of the investigation was based in particular on information provided by “a witness who was present at the Minsk air traffic control tower”.
Belarusian air traffic controller
the New York Times reported this week that a Belarusian air traffic controller had defected and confided in Polish investigators.
The hijacking of the plane sparked an international outcry and led the European Union to impose sanctions on Belarus.
The EU believes that Minsk has, in turn, sought to respond to the sanctions by causing a crisis on its western border. Since the summer, thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have crossed or attempted to cross this border from Belarus to enter the EU.