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EU leaders are weighing a series of sanctions to punish Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarusian regime after what Brussels called a “hijacking” of a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to arrest a dissident on board.
Among the options the 27 leaders of the bloc will explore are a ban on landing the Belarusian national company Belavia at EU airports; declare the country’s airspace unsafe; and the extension of sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes already imposed on dozens of officials in Minsk for rights violations, according to EU diplomats.
The forced landing in Minsk and the subsequent arrest of Roman Protasevich, a former editor of Nexta, one of the main independent Belarusian media groups, was “another flagrant attempt by the Belarusian authorities to silence all opposition voices.” say Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief.
He called for an “international investigation” to determine any breach of international aviation regulations. A French official said a formal request for an investigation had been submitted to the UN aviation agency.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, threatened “consequences” for the “scandalous and illegal behavior of the regime in Belarus.” “Those responsible for the Ryanair “The kidnapping must be sanctioned,” he tweeted. “Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately.”
Ryanair described the diversion of its plane as an “act of air piracy”, and chief executive Michael O’Leary said he was waiting for instructions on whether to avoid Belarus’ airspace in the future.
“It seems that the intention of the authorities was to dismiss a journalist and his traveling companion,” he said, adding that he understood that Belarusian KGB secret service agents could have been on board, but without offering any evidence.
Belarus’s foreign ministry said the allegations were “unfounded”, while Russia’s was described as “shocking” by the EU’s response.
Relations between Brussels and Minsk have deteriorated following last year’s presidential polls and the repression that followed. In December, European leaders imposed a new wave of sanctions on Lukashenko and other members of the regime.
Belarus continues to be part of the EU’s “Eastern Partnership” with six states close to Russia’s border, which enjoy privileges such as a visa facilitation agreement launched last year. The European bloc had once wished to take Minsk out of the Kremlin’s orbit, but Sunday’s events have highlighted how that goal seems abandoned.
Franak Viacorka, an aide to Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, called for a no-fly zone over Belarus. He also called for additional sanctions against Belarus’ lucrative oil and potash sectors, which provide crucial revenue for the Lukashenko regime that has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years.
Belarusian media said Lukashenko personally gave the order to divert Ryanair flight FR4978, which was carrying 171 passengers from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday before abruptly diverting to the Belarusian capital Minsk, shortly before leaving. Belarusian airspace.
Belarusian officials said a MiG-29 fighter jet had been revolutionized to escort the plane to Minsk after a bomb blast, which they later acknowledged was “fake”.
In a statement posted on the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s website on Monday, spokesman Anatoly Glaz said its aviation authorities had acted “in accordance with established international standards.” Glaz accused EU countries of “rushing to make openly warlike statements” and “deliberately politicizing the situation with baseless accusations and labels.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry echoed Belarus ‘attack on Western countries’ responses to the incident, accusing them of hypocrisy.
“It is shocking that the West calls the Belarusian airspace incident ‘shocking.'” Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokeswoman, wrote in a post on her Facebook page, citing other examples of planes diverted by Western nations to arrest wanted people.
Protasevich’s girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who was traveling with him, was also arrested when the plane landed, according to the European University of Humanities in Vilnius, where she was studying.
According to messages Protasevich sent to co-workers on Sunday, he was followed by a man suspected of being a Belarusian KGB agent while he was in the Athens exit lounge.
Passengers on board the flight told AFP that Protasevich had started searching his suitcases and had given some items to his girlfriend once it became clear that the flight was going to land in Belarus.
“[He was] she wasn’t screaming, but it was obvious she was very scared, “said Edvinas Dimsa, a passenger at AFP.” It looked like if the window had been opened, I would have jumped out of it. “
Additional reports by Philip Georgiadis in London and Richard Milne in Oslo
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