BELARUS could face further sanctions as European leaders discuss how to respond to the diversion of a Ryanair flight to enable to arrest of a political opponent.
EU leaders are to hold emergency talks over the situation where 26-year-old journalist Raman Pratasevich was arrested by Belarusian authorities after the plane he was on was diverted to Minsk due to a bomb scare.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has also said he is working with allies on a coordinated response, stating that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko must be held to account for his “outlandish actions”.
The circumstances which led to Protasevich's arrest have been described as a hijacking operation by Lukashenko’s government.
The Belarusian journalist and opposition activist was on board the flight from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania when it changed course to head for Minsk after a bomb scare.
Raab condemned the actions of Belarusian authorities yesterday and called for the immediate release of Protasevich and other political prisoners.
He said the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s council should hold an urgent meeting to consider the regime’s flouting of the rules.
Raab will update MPs on the situation at around 3.30pm today.
READ MORE: Belarus regime 'forces Ryanair plane to land to arrest opposition journalist'
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said it was a “state-sponsored hijacking” and claimed agents from Russia’s KGB were also on board the flight.
“I think it’s very frightening for the crew, for the passengers who were held under armed guard, had their bags searched,” he told Newstalk.
“It was clear it appears that the intent of the Russian authorities was to remove a journalist and his travelling companion.
“We believe there was also some KGB agents offloaded from the aircraft as well.”
Ireland’s foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney has said the forced landing of the Ryanair flight was state-sponsored “aviation piracy”.
He told Irish new channel RTE: “The EU has to give a very clear response to this, otherwise we’re giving all the wrong signals.”
Meanwhile, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy (above) has called on the Belarusian ambassador in London to be summoned immediately to demand the release of Protasevich and "dozens of others" who have been detained in similar circumstances.
Describing the incident as "appalling", Nandy told Times Radio: “We haven’t seen anything like this before of course, but what we have seen is those who criticise this regime rounded up and arrested, and we should be demanding the release of all of those political prisoners.”
Nandy said the UK should consider blocking flights from Belavia Belarusian Airlines and also whether further sanctions are necessary.
“There has got to be repercussions for this because as I said earlier it tears up the international rules. It just simply cannot be allowed to stand,” she said.
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Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said “very strict” sanctions need to be put on the Lukashenko regime and flights over Belarus should be suspended because of safety fears.
He told Times Radio: “In 2014 the Russian government – the closest ally of Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus – shot down a Malaysian aircraft and killed over 200 Dutch tourists.
“These are not idle threats. These are very real threats from a government whose allies and friends have done exactly that only a few years ago.”
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