DISINFO: Raman Pratasevich's case is similar to Viktor Bout's detention
SUMMARY
If we return to the analogies of the incident with the detention of Raman Protasevich in Minsk, we can recall how harsh America is detaining people it dislikes not only on its territory but all over the world, spreading its laws and rules to almost the entire world. For example, in March 2008, in the Thai capital of Bangkok, local police units, together with US intelligence units, arrested Russian businessman Viktor Bout. After that, Bout was transferred to the United States, convicted of illegal arms trade and is still languishing in prison. In July of the same 2008, agents of the US secret service detained in the Maldives Roman Seleznev, the son of State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Valery Seleznev. Roman was forcibly taken to the United States, convicted of cyber fraud and sentenced to a long prison term, which he is serving. In May 2010, Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko was arrested at the request of the United States in Liberia, sent to the US, convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In all cases, Russia protested, pointed to a violation of the principle of exterritoriality, but the United States still imposed its line.
RESPONSE
An ongoing tactic of "whataboutism" used to justify the hijacking of the Ryanair plane on 23 May 2021 in order to arrest Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich who was on board.
Raman Pratasevich is co-founded the opposition Telegram channel NEXTA, which played an important role in providing information and broadcasting huge opposition protests against the Belarusian authoritarian regime in 2020.
Unlike Pratasevich, Bout, Yaroshenko and Seleznev have been routinely arrested on criminal, and not political charges in the frame of Interpol's search upon request of a Member State and convicted after transparent court hearings. No highjacking of a plane occurred in such cases. Therefore, the comparison to Pratasevich is outrageous. Russia is also a member of Interpol and cooperates with it requesting the arrest of its defendants on criminal charges.
It is also not clear what principle of extraterritoriality the report refers to since the Russian detainees were not diplomats. In criminal cases, there is a convention on the transfer of criminal cases to the country of citizenship of the arrested person, but this is exclusively the good will of the state that initially opened a criminal file, and such a request may be rejected.
Raman Pratasevich, on the other hand, was detained in Minsk airport when flying from Athens to Vilnius. On Sunday, May 23, 2021, the Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to turn back before crossing the Lithuanian border and land in the Belarusian capital. The pretext for landing in Minsk was a false report about the bomb on board. At the moment when the plane changed course, it was closer to Vilnius airport than to Minsk. The plane was forced by a Belarusian military aircraft to land in Minsk. Raman Pratasevich was detained during a repeated security check of passengers.
The EU condemned Belarusian action against civil plane and the detention of Pratasevich. In a declaration on behalf of the EU on the forced diversion of Ryanair flight FR4978 to Minsk on 23 May 2021, the High Representative called for the immediate release of Mr Pratasevich. This was followed by a European Council statement, in which the EU leaders called for targeted individual and economic sanctions as well as to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by these.
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