The EU has examined Belarusian sanctions after Ryanair’s flight was “hijacked”

EU leaders are considering numerous sanctions to punish Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus, when Brussels called it a “kidnapping” of a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to arrest a dissident.

Among the options to be explored by the 27 leaders of the bloc are the banning of the landing of the Belarusian national company, Belavia, at EU airports; that the country’s airspace is unsafe; According to EU diplomats, they have already extended sanctions such as bans on passengers and freezing of assets for violations of the rights imposed on dozens of Minsk officials.

The forced landing in Minsk and the subsequent arrest of Roman Protasevich, former editor of Nexta, one of the main independent media groups in Belarus, was “another significant attempt by the Belarusian authorities to silence all opposition voices,” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s main foreign policy.

He called for an “international investigation” to find out that the rules of the international aircraft are being violated. A French official said a formal request for an investigation had been made to the UN aircraft agency.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has threatened “consequences” of “the regime’s horrific and illegal behavior in Belarus”. ” Ryanair The kidnapping must be punished, “he tweeted.” Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately. “

Ryanair said the diversion of its aircraft was an “act of aircraft piracy,” and CEO Michael O’Leary said he was waiting for instructions in the future to avoid Belarusian airspace.

“It appears that the authorities intended to remove a journalist and his traveling companion,” he said, adding that agents with the Belarusian KGB secret service could have been on board, but without providing any evidence.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said the allegations were “baseless” and said Russia’s response to the EU was “shocking”.

Relations between Brussels and Minsk have deteriorated following last year’s presidential polls and subsequent crackdown. In December, European leaders imposed a new wave of sanctions on Lukashenko and other members of the regime.

Belarus is still part of the “Eastern Cooperation” with the six states near the Russian border, with privileges such as the visa facilitation agreement launched last year. The European bloc once hoped to get the Minsk out of the Kremlin’s orbit, but Sunday’s events have highlighted how this goal is being revealed.

Fran Viacorka, an aide to opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in exile in Belarus, called on Belarus to establish a wingless zone. He also called for more sanctions on Belarus’s profitable oil and potash sectors, as the revenue is crucial to Lukashenko’s regime, which has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years.

Belarusian media said Lukashenko personally gave the Ryanair flight FR4978, carrying 171 passengers from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday, before heading to the Belarusian capital Minsk before leaving Belarusian airspace.

Belarusian officials said they attacked a MiG-29 aircraft to school in Minsk after a bomb blast, and later admitted it was “fake”.

In a statement released on Monday on the website of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, spokesman Anatoly Glaz said his aircraft authorities had acted “in accordance with established international standards”. Glaz accused EU countries of “clearly rushing to wage wars of expression” and “necessarily basing the situation on baseless allegations and labels.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, echoed the response of Western countries to the incident, accusing it of hypocrisy.

“It’s amazing that the West is calling what happened in Belarusian airspace ‘shocking.’ Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote a message on her Facebook page citing other examples of planes to arrest people wanted by Western nations.

Protasevich’s girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who was traveling with him, was also arrested when the plane landed, she was studying, according to the European University of Human Sciences in Vilnius.

Protasevich sent messages to colleagues on Sunday, saying he was still in the room leaving Athens because he was still an agent of the Belarusian KGB.

Passengers on the plane told AFP that Protasevich had started packing his bags and had given some things to his girlfriend when it became clear that the flight would land in Belarus.

“[He was] not screaming, but it was clear that he was very scared, ”a traveler, Edvinas Dimsa, told AFP. “It looked like if the window was open, he would jump out of it.”

Additional report by Philip Georgiadis in London and Richard Milne in Oslo