Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has criticized the forced plane landing in Minsk and 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.”
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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.
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 Protassewitsch, who was internationally wanted by the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and who was arrested in Minsk, was on board the machine.
The incident is to be discussed on Monday at an already planned special summit of the EU heads of state and government. This was announced by a spokesman for EU Council President Charles Michel on Sunday evening. The consequences and possible sanctions are to be discussed on this occasion.
The EU leaders condemned the diversion of the machine. “It is absolutely unacceptable to force the Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk,” wrote EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Twitter on Sunday. Violations of international air traffic rules must have consequences.
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. (dpa)
