25.05.2021, Riga.
The member of the Latvian parliament (Saeima) from the ruling alliance Development/For! Aigars Bikše proposed to detain the Belarusian team at the World Hockey Championship, held in Riga, and exchange the team for all political prisoners in Belarus on May 25 on his Facebook page.
“I have a proposition: Latvia detains the entire Belarusian hockey team and releases it on the Latvian-Belarusian border in exchange for all political prisoners of the Belarusian terrorist regime,” the member of the parliament wrote.
Bikše called for a loud and tangible response to the “hijacking by the Belarusian regime,” which, in his opinion, is the final signal of complete indifference to human rights and international relations.
He called it a signal to those who still want to fight for their fundamental rights in Belarus, “We will persecute you everywhere, and your supporters in the West will not be able to protect you!”
The plane of the Irish airline Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius made a forced landing at the airport in Minsk on May 23. After the announcement of a bomb threat onboard, a MiG-29 fighter was airborne to escort the plane.
Information about the bomb threat onboard was not confirmed, but Belarusian law enforcement officers arrested Roman Protasevich, founder of Telegram-channel NEXTA, who was on board and wanted by the authorities. The channel is recognized as extremist in Belarus. The plane took off from Minsk and landed in Vilnius the same evening.
After that, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs and Riga Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis personally took off the national flag of Belarus at the door of the hotel, where the national hockey team was staying, and replaced it with the white-red-white flag, used by the Belarusian opposition. Staķis threatened to replace the flag at the International Ice Hockey Federation as well.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
