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Lrytas.lt As far as we know, these flight data recorders were urgently transported to Warsaw without the permission of the officers. At the time, Lithuanian police were successfully following in the footsteps of Belarusian KGB agents in Europe, and Greek police were looking for a man who could secretly follow Raman Pratasevich imprisoned by the regime in Athens.
A Ryanair plane that, following a false report of an explosive on May 23. He was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk and only then did he arrive in Vilnius, and last Friday, after further forensic examination, he was returned to this airline by decision of the Lithuanian police and flew to Warsaw.
Polish law enforcement officers, who are also conducting a pre-trial investigation into the incident, also participated in the expert inspection of Liner, which has been at the disposal of the Criminal Police Office at Vilnius International Airport.
Ryanair was pressured by the Lithuanian authorities to return the plane to it earlier, but the company itself received public complaints from the deputy attorney general Gintas Ivanauskas and the head of the Criminal Police Office Rolandas Kiškis about insufficient assistance to investigate the incident.
“Cooperation with Ryanair is ongoing, but together with the Attorney General’s Office, we believe that it could be faster and more efficient,” R. Kiškis, head of the Criminal Police Office, said publicly on Friday.
Although officials did not publicly detail their allegations against a major European airline, according to sources at Lrytas.lt, this public discontent with law enforcement authorities was due to the fact that for more than a week Ryanair airlines were unable to broadcast the “black box” calls to pilots. Determine the chronology of actions and identify the nature of the instructions from the Minsk airspace control controllers.
Currently, the application of the law is based on the content of interviews with crew members whose captain is a Lithuanian citizen. They have already been interviewed several times.
Lithuanian officials misled?
On the night of May 23, the plane returned from Vilnius to Vilnius. During the crash landing, agents of the organized crime investigation unit of the Belarusian militia arrested an opposition activist who was confronting the ocean liners, one of the leaders of the social network channel Telegram Nexta, a Belarusian citizen R. Pratasevich and his friend a Russian citizen with permanent residence. leave in Belarus, Sofia Sap is a student at the European University of Humanities in Vilnius.
In addition, three other passengers (two Belarusians and one Greek) stopped the flight themselves at the Minsk domestic airport.
Lrytas.lt According to the information, Lithuanian law enforcement officers carried out various procedural actions that same night and, together with Ryanair representatives, agreed that the “black boxes” would take place the following day.
However, in the early hours of the morning, Ryanair law enforcement officers were unexpectedly informed that the airline’s engineers had already removed the “black box” and brought it to its headquarters in Warsaw.
According to unofficial information, Lithuanian law enforcement authorities have informed Ryanair that if there is a delay in the transfer of the contents of the “black box”, Poland may be asked to seek legal aid and its agents will make seizures in the Airline headquarters in Warsaw. .
Ryanair, for its part, assures pre-trial investigation officers that it will carry out an internal investigation and provide audio recordings as soon as possible.
Suspicion of operation of the Belarusian KGB
According to preliminary data, on May 23. The MiG-29 fighter jet, launched to Belarus, did not communicate with the Ryanair liner, did not give any instructions or signals to turn to Minsk airport, and the fighter flight took place approximately 40 km from a civilian aircraft.
For their part, Belarusian air traffic controllers were only able to provide recommendations to the captain of a commercial aircraft, but not coercive instructions to change course.
“The decision to land in Minsk was made by the ship’s captain in consultation with Ryanair management,” said R. Kiškis, head of the Criminal Police Office.
However, this must be definitively confirmed by ‘black box’ audio recordings, which will be compared with data from eyewitness surveys and military intelligence information also expected from the Allies.
“The good news is that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has also launched a pre-trial investigation. This allows for more information.” Lrytas.lt a knowledgeable source spoke.
However, the Belarusian regime and its intelligence services are already bogged down with other details.
The opposition could be constantly monitored.
Lithuanian police should be contacted soon with official information from the Swiss prosecutor’s office that an anonymous email was sent from the Protonmail mailbox of the country’s email service provider to three addresses later, after Belarusian controllers informed the captain. of the threat.
This fact has already been confirmed by the information technology company to the international media. The mailbox itself was created just over a week before the false report of explosives on the plane.
“This is not to say that the operation was not prepared in advance and that it was rushed. “The aircraft simply had to traverse Belarusian airspace for a limited time and all actions were likely to be taken at the same time, but it was necessary to initiate a dialogue with the pilot as soon as possible and at a convincing time.” Lrytas.lt said a well-informed source.
The Belarusian regime defends itself by receiving information through various channels, not just by email, but without providing convincing evidence.
An even more important fact, showing traces of a special operation by the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB), is the available data, which suggests that KGB agents may have been secretly following R. Protasevičius during several flights in Europe.
Athens denied the involvement of the KGB or SVR
Although Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotaki said late last week that there were no Belarusian KGB officers on board, final answers are still being sought.
“There were no agents of the Belarusian KGB or any other intelligence service on that plane. None. Zero. We have checked everything carefully,” Greek Prime Minister K. Mitsotaki told German media.
The Lithuanian police have sent a request for legal assistance to Greek colleagues and Vilnius is awaiting official responses. Well informed Lrytas.lt A source in Athens argues that the Greek prime minister’s statement should be seen as a response only to public allegations about the involvement of air passengers, not intelligence officers in general.
“Three passengers disembarked in Minsk and did not fly to Vilnius any more. They were identified as possible KGB agents, no such data is available. One of them is a Greek citizen: he is not a KGB agent, it has been established that he is a mathematics teacher from Patras, who married a Belarusian woman, ”a well-informed source in Athens told Lrytas.lt.
According to unofficial data, Greek police are inspecting movements at the Athens International Airport, video recordings and telecommunications incidents at the request of Lithuania.
“So far, there are no reports of known Belarusian or Russian intelligence officers in the waiting room of the Athens airport.
However, the Athens police are trying to establish the identity of the Slavic-looking bald man, who was photographed by R. Pratasevičius in the common waiting room before the search. It could be his intelligence agent in Athens, who “accompanied” Pratasevičius and made sure he had checked in for the flight. ” Lrytas.lt said a well-informed source in Greece.
It also caused anxiety in Vilnius
During the investigation and the emergence of more and more details that allow a reasonable suspicion of a special Belarusian KGB operation abroad against representatives of the opposition in exile, their safety in Vilnius has been a cause for concern.
This was reinforced by the statement by the Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Cichanouskaya, that she flew on the same flight from Athens to Vilnius a week before landing in Minsk. By the way, in Athens he had also met with R. Pratasevičius, who is now in custody.
This has caused concern about the decisions of the Lithuanian authorities to assess the safety of the flight path through Belarusian airspace, as Ms. Cichanouskaya is receiving protection from the state, which takes care of her and the protection of her children. .
“The situation with the landing of the plane in Minsk shows that the Belarusian KGB is beginning to act aggressively abroad. It cannot be ruled out that it is doing so with the help of Russian services. We must take action and once again report people at risk of the measures they must take, and also reinforce measures to protect these people.
By this I mean not only Belarusian and Russian opposition representatives living in Vilnius, but also Lithuanian citizens who are on target, say, current and former officials who investigated the January 13 case. ” Lrytas.lt said Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the Seimas Defense and National Security Committee.
Pre-trial investigations into the landing of Ryanair planes are carried out by the Lithuanian Criminal Police Office, led by prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office, the Organized Crime and Corruption Division of the Polish Prosecutor’s Office in Mazovia, together with the Agency of International Security, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation
Lithuanian law enforcement cooperates with Irish and Greek law enforcement agencies and partners from other countries.
