US, EU vow to pressure Belarus on diversion of Ryanair jet

Bloomberg

Backed by the US, European Union (EU) leaders moved to impose new sanctions on Belarus over the forced landing of a Ryanair Holdings Plc jet and the arrest of a dissident journalist.
“It’s piracy,” German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday in a Bloomberg webinar. “I’m really, really angry about what happened and we cannot accept
activities like this in Europe.”
Calling the incident “a direct affront to international norms,” US President Joe Biden welcomed the EU decision. In a statement, he said he’s asked advisers “to develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible.” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke by phone with exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and French President Emmanuel Macron endorsed a proposal to invite her and other opposition leaders to next month’s Group of Seven summit.
EU leaders asked the European Commission to propose Belarusian officials who should be added to an existing blacklist and told their ministers to come up with broader measures
to target businesses and entire
sectors of country’s economy. They also vowed to ban Belavia Belarusian Airlines from entering EU airspace and asked EU-based carriers to avoid flying over Belarus.
“This is an attack on democracy, this is an attack on freedom of expression and this is an attack on European sovereignty,” Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, told reporters.
European sanctions could take a month or more to take effect, however, while the US administration didn’t indicate when it might take action. Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has already withstood years of Western sanctions thanks to support from Russia and China, deepening a crackdown that began after anti-government protests swept the country last summer.
The measures followed the forced landing of a Ryanair jet in Minsk and arrest of 26-year-old Raman Pratasevich who was on board the flight from Athens to Vilnius. The EU called on President Lukashenko to release the journalist and on the International Civil Aviation Organisation to investigate the incident.
Pratasevich appeared in a brief video released by Belarusian authorities. Speaking with little expression, he said he was being treated “appropriately,” is feeling well and has confessed to charges of fomenting mass unrest. His allies said he appeared to have been beaten, but there were no clear signs of injuries.
The video “makes for deeply distressing viewing,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter. “Belarus’ actions will have consequences.”
Accused of torturing prisoners, Belarusian authorities have regularly released such “confession” videos from detainees in months since the protests began last summer. The crackdown showed no signs of letting up, with a court in Mogilev on Tuesday sentencing seven opposition activists and bloggers to sentences of
up to seven years in prison each for organisng mass unrest —
the same charge to which
Pratasevich confessed in video.