The Diplomat
European Union leaders were outraged yesterday after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair plane from Athens – which was flying over the country on its way to Lithuania – to land in Minsk on the false pretext that there was an explosive on board. The Belarusian dictator took advantage of the landing to arrest opposition blogger Roman Protasevich, who was on board.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described the manoeuvre as unacceptable and called for all passengers to be given the opportunity to continue their journey in safety. “Any violation of international air transport rules must have consequences,” von der Leyen warned on her Twitter account.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that what happened must be investigated, and Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, held the Belarusian government responsible for the safety of all passengers and the aircraft” and called for “all passengers” to be able to continue their journey “immediately”. Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya made the same request on her Twitter account, while the UK warned that the diversion of the aircraft would have serious consequences.
The European leaders’ demands went unheeded by Lukashenko, whose police arrested Protasevich, an activist who was on a list of fugitives after last year’s mass street protests against presidential election fraud. Hundreds of journalists have been arrested and nearly 20 imprisoned since the outbreak of protests in the former Soviet republic, which is why it has been ranked the most dangerous place in Europe for the press by Reporters Without Borders.
Lukashenko, his son Viktor and 53 other senior Belarusian officials have been on the EU’s sanctions list since last autumn. They are all banned from entering the EU and any assets they may have in the EU will be frozen by the national authorities.
