Lithuanians who were forcibly accosted on a plane in Minsk quote Protasevičius’s last words: he said the death penalty awaits him here.

A short conversation with a young Belarusian opposition activist memorized more than one passenger. The horrible news and the wall of silence between the officers and the flight crew were even more alarming. It was as if soldiers with dogs were looking for criminals on the plane, they kept him in the narrow corridor for inspection, not even letting them go to the bathroom.

Vacationers say that information about the alleged conflict that reached the managers of the Lithuanian Minsk Airport from Minsk was false.

“We spent three hours in narrow corridors without water, toilets and everything else to go through our documents and register. The inspection of the aircraft lasted about three hours. Now we are in ignorance, confined to the waiting room, spending nothing in the common area. The children with “bananas” are standing. But there are restrooms and a bar. We are waiting, nobody tells us anything, ”says a passenger on the plane to Minsk.

“It just came to our knowledge then. After a sudden maneuver of the plane, a boy started to panic and shook his head. Only then did we understand why. There was no conflict, there were no scandals until those turns of the plane, no one got angry With no one. Only when the guy found out we let go he got upset. The four of us were taken out by us, the dogs sniffed all the things. He took the boy aside and shook his belongings on the catwalk. We asked him what was going on. He said what it was and added: “I am facing the death penalty here.” He was already calmer, but shaking. An officer was standing next to him all the time, and soon the officers just took him out, “says the person who saw the events closely.

The air passenger did not conceal that it was clear from the uniforms that the air passenger was not interested in ordinary officers. People who have been in the dark for several hours only hear one thing: that they will be allowed to return “quickly”, but according to a witness who spoke to “Delfi.lt”, that “fast” continues from the end of the inspection.

Another passenger, Delfi.lt, assured that people are still upset. Although they can already buy food, most have traveled home and people sitting by the window say they have already seen Vilnius.

“We just found out then that we would be in Minsk. The plane was already flying down, we hoped to land soon in Vilnius. People reacted calmly and the detained journalist was harassed and taken to his backpack ”, shares another witness who suddenly saw the arrest of R. Protasevičius with his own eyes.

Fenced in an area of ​​about 150 square years, people still expect something unknown. According to the interlocutors, the anxiety does not stop, people already expected to arrive in the Lithuanian capital at 1:00 p.m. and went to another country. No one provides the information, although the service personnel are friendly. However, among travelers, families with children, people who have organized meetings, some will have to travel to other cities, so not only people trapped in Minsk but also their relatives live in hours of anxiety.

Commenting on the situation, Asta Skaisgirytė, the Lithuanian president’s senior foreign policy adviser, said there was no such precedent in the country’s history. Initially, unreliable information was received that there was an explosive on the landing plane.

However, according to her, Belarus used two military units to land the plane: a MIG-29 military fighter and an MI-24 helicopter. According to A. Skaisgirytė, this is very similar to the actions of the Belarusian KGB.

According to her, the information received shows that Belarus was clearly aware that Roman Protasevich, the founder of NEXTA and a member of the Belarusian opposition regime, was piloting this plane. A total of 170 passengers flew on the airliner, of which 94 were Lithuanian citizens. According to A. Skaisgirytė, all of them were also threatened.