ICAO specialists refuse to talk to Ryanair FR4978 flight passenger Roman Protasevich

MINSK, 30 August (BelTA) – Specialists of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), who went to Belarus, have refused to talk to Roman Protasevich, a passenger of the Ryanair FR4978 flight, which landed in the Minsk National Airport on 23 May. Director of the Aviation Department of the Transport and Communications Ministry Artyom Sikorsky made the statement in a recent broadcast hosted by the YouTube channel of Igor Tur, a political analyst of the Belarusian TV channel ONT, BelTA has learned.

Artyom Sikorsky said: “We understand perfectly well that the ICAO specialists would not be here if not for the situation involving one Ryanair FR4978 flight passenger. But they have refused to talk to him. They were invited to talk to him but refused to do it.”

Moreover, as far as the visit of the ICAO specialists to Belarus is concerned, it was initially noted that they would like to talk to all the five passengers, who stayed in Belarus after the Ryanair FR4978 flight left Minsk. “In the end they haven't met with a single one of them,” Artyom Sikorsky said.

Yet the official noted that the ICAO specialists left Belarus in a mood that differed from the one they had on arrival. They now understand what transpired and realize it was not some special operation designed to detain one of the passengers. “They saw it (we didn't know who was on board the aircraft in our air space). Most importantly we have proven it. And we've proven that we acted precisely in compliance with all the international guidelines. In the end I saw they were absolutely bewildered. Because the attitude they had on arrival – the attitude of an absolutely closed issue – has changed,” Artyom Sikorsky said.

Lukashenko orders to land Ryanair jet in Minsk after bomb alert

The Belarusian leader also ordered to scramble a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the passenger plane. The fighter jet is now on stanby waiting for all the necessary security checks to be completed to escort the plane to the Lithuanian border.

Lukashenko comments on Athens-Vilnius flight incident

“How were we supposed to act, especially given a recent spate of bomb threats in our country? You live in Belarus and you are well aware that we deal, almost on a daily basis, with fake bomb threats targeting our schools, universities, companies and planes that come from IP addresses in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. In each case we responded adequately,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Lukashenko: Investigation concerning Protasevich and Sapega will proceed in Belarus

Speaking about negotiations with President of Russia Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that the matter of the arrested Ryanair flight passengers had been certainly discussed, but the presidents had spent only a small amount of time talking about it.

Protasevich reveals his role in conspiracy to overthrow Belarus' government

According to Roman Protasevich, he also participated in online meetings of the plotters. When the opposition was working on a plan of a mutiny in Belarus, he acted as a link between them and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Protasevich: I didn't aim for the goals the opposition is trying to reach now

Roman Protasevich said: “Maybe yes. I sincerely believed in what I was doing. And I was doing it not quite for what the opposition is coming to now. I was indeed too committed to ideas in many aspects and I believed extremely strongly in some ideals. Which unfortunately are in much shorter supply in real life than I thought.”