After the forced landing of a Ryanair passenger plane in Belarus and the subsequent arrest of a government critic, the reactions are clear. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of a “kidnapping”. “Those responsible for the Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned,” tweeted von der Leyen on Sunday evening.
She also called for the immediate release of the blogger and journalist Roman Protasewitsch. Von der Leyen said that the EU heads of state and government would discuss how to proceed on Monday.
Authorities in the authoritarian Republic of Belarus landed a plane en route from Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania on Sunday, the airline Ryanair confirmed. According to the Wesna Human Rights Center, blogger Roman Protasewitsch, who was internationally wanted by the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and was arrested in Minsk, was on board the machine.
The rerouting of the Ryanair plane forced by Belarus also caused outrage in Germany. “If the information is confirmed, it is an incredible case of state terrorism,” said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Norbert Röttgen (CDU), the newspapers of the editorial network Germany. “This should have clear consequences.”
EU advises on sanctions
The EU heads of state and government will discuss new sanctions against Belarus on Monday evening. EU Council President Charles Michel put the issue on the agenda of the already planned two-day EU special summit in Brussels at short notice. “The incident will not remain without consequences,” said the Belgian on Sunday evening. At the same time he condemned the forced landing of the Ryanair plane and the reported arrest of a Belarusian journalist by the authorities of the authoritarian republic.
From EU circles it was said that the European Union was considering various punitive measures against Belarus. These include sanctions against those responsible for the incident and a landing ban for the Belarusian airline Belavia at all EU airports, as EU circles said on Monday. In addition, all overflights of EU airlines over Belarus could be suspended.
The US government has also sharply condemned the actions of the authorities in Belarus. US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter on Sunday evening with a view to the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko that it had been a “brazen and shocking act by the Lukashenko regime”. “We are calling for an international investigation and are coordinating the next steps with our partners. The United States stands by the people of Belarus. “
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The Lithuanian authorities have meanwhile started the investigation. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office in Vilnius, a preliminary investigation into the hijacking of an airplane has been opened. It will be carried out by the criminal police of the Baltic EU and NATO country. The passengers and crew of the aircraft that landed in Vilnius at 9:25 p.m. local time (8:25 p.m. CEST) with a delay of more than eight hours should also be interviewed.
“We also expect them to work with the law enforcement authorities and provide our officers with all the information they know,” said Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, according to BNS, after meeting passengers at the Vilnius airport. “We hope that people can go home as soon as possible tonight because we understand that everyone is tired.”
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called for “clear consequences”. “The fact that a flight between two EU countries was forced to make a stopover under the pretext of a bomb threat is a serious encroachment on civil aviation in Europe,” said the SPD politician on Sunday evening, according to a statement. “We are very concerned about reports that the journalist Roman Protasevich was arrested in this way.”
He is in close contact with the EU partners concerned. “The upcoming informal European Council should also deal with the incident. In any case, Belarus must immediately guarantee the security, integrity and freedom of all passengers and release Roman Protasevich, ”said Maas.
For the Chancellor candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, the forced plane landing in Minsk amounts to “a state hijacking of a passenger plane”. The apparently arrested blogger Roman Protassewitsch must be released immediately, she wrote on Sunday evening on Twitter. “The European Union cannot accept this unprecedented escalation, the threat to our freedom in Europe and the massive threat to European civil aviation,” said Baerbock.
Baerbock wrote: “A new sanctions package from the EU is needed, with which Belarusian state-owned companies are also sanctioned, which form Lukashenko’s backbone and which have already been put on its sanctions list by the USA.” Last year, the EU had sanctions against Lukashenko, among other things the continued repression of the democracy movement in Belarus.
The FDP called for the Belarusian national airline Belavia to be deprived of its landing rights in the European Union. Ruler Alexander Lukashenko was guilty of kidnapping. “Lukashenko crossed a red line with the hijacking of a passenger plane that was en route between two EU member states,” said the deputy leader of the FDP parliamentary group, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, to the RND. “He must be treated as a criminal from now on.” (dpa / AFP / Reuters)
