A Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus for several hours on Sunday, with activists saying it was done to arrest a dissident journalist on board.

Commenting on the diversion of Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania in Belarus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia tweeted late on May 23 that “all passengers must enjoy the freedom of safe travel” and that “their forced detention is completely unacceptable.”

“We welcome the safe landing of the Ryanair flight to its original destination – Vilnius [and] are happy for the people onboard,” stated the Georgian Foreign Ministry.

The ex-editor of the Nexta group, Roman Protasevich, was detained before the plane was allowed to resume its flight.

Belarus media said a MiG-29 escorted the jet to Minsk because of a bomb scare but no explosives were found.

The plane finally landed in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, its original destination, at 21:25 local time (18:25 GMT), more than seven hours after its scheduled arrival.

Arriving passengers said they had been given no information about the reason for the abrupt diversion to Minsk. Passenger Monika Simkiene told AFP news agency: "He just turned to people and said he was facing the death penalty."

Nexta is a media operation with a Telegram channel, and has visibility on Twitter and YouTube.It played a key role for the Belarus opposition during the election and has continued to so in its aftermath, particularly with the government imposing news blackouts.

Mr Protasevich, 26, had left Belarus in 2019 and covered the events of the 2020 presidential election with Nexta, after which criminal charges were filed against him in Belarus.