Belarus dissident to file complaint in Poland against Lukashenko after threats

WARSAW (Reuters) - Belarusian opposition politician Pavel Latushko said on Wednesday he would file a complaint with the Polish prosecutor's office against President Alexander Lukashenko and other officials due to threats of physical violence against him.

Belarusian dissidents abroad say they have faced a new wave of threats since Minsk provoked international outrage by scrambling a warplane to intercept a Ryanair aircraft and arrest a dissident journalist in May.

"I want to tell prosecutors that crimes may be committed against me including kidnapping, unlawful deprivation of liberty and even killing me and other Belarusian opposition activists who emigrated," Pavel Latushko said.

"I constantly receive threats from the Belarusian regime, threatening my life, health and safety."

Latushko said he believed there is a "real threat" Belarus may conduct actions against opposition politicians in Poland and other European Union member states, adding he hoped the EU would introduce effective sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko's regime.

Asset freezes and travel bans are part of a package of new sanctions on Belarus from EU states, after a Ryanair flight was urged to land in Minsk on May 23, where dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend were arrested.

"This act of state terrorism which took place in the airspace is just a harbinger of what awaits (Belarusian) democratic leaders on EU territory," said Michal Szczerba, a member of the Polish parliament's committee on Belarus.

Belarusian authorities say they are battling foreign-backed terrorists and plotters intent on revolution and regime change.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; writing by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Alan Charlish; Editing by Hugh Lawson)