Belarus: UN launches investigation into aircraft diversion

pressure from the international community is increasing. Latest twist in the case of the journalist arrested in Belarus after the hijacking of his Ryanair flight over a bomb threat: the UN civil aviation agency announced an investigation on Thursday, and the parents appealed to help the international community to free him. For the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), it is a question of “understanding whether there has been a violation of international aviation law by a Member State of ICAO ”.

The UN agency thus responded to a call from European members of the UN Security Council and the United States, who are stepping up pressure on the Belarusian regime. But Minsk has in this case the unwavering support of its Russian ally, whose foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Thursday that the West must “stop demonizing those it does not like”.

Meeting with Putin on Friday

Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin are due to meet in Russia on Friday. “I want you to convey our demand all over the world, to government officials, to EU countries, to EU leaders, to US leaders: I cry out, I beg you, help me release my son, ”said Natalia Protassevich, the 26-year-old journalist’s mother, at a press conference in Warsaw.

Roman Protassevich, imprisoned in Belarus after the hijacking of his Athens-Vilnius flight, faces a heavy prison sentence. He is accused by the Belarusian authorities of having organized “massive unrest” during the 2020 demonstrations against the re-election of Mr. Lukashenko. The journalist’s parents, themselves exiled in Warsaw since the crackdown in Belarus last year, have remained without contact with their son since his arrest on Sunday at Minsk airport.

In London, the G7 foreign ministers condemned “with the greatest firmness” the arrest of the journalist and his companion and demanded their “immediate and unconditional release”. The mobilization in favor of the release of the young journalist does not weaken. The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) held a demonstration on Thursday on the border between Lithuania and Belarus, holding up portraits of 21 journalists imprisoned in the former Soviet republic located between Russia and the European Union.

The Belarusian president sparked outrage among Westerners by sending a fighter jet on Sunday to intercept a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, on which the dissident journalist and his Russian friend Sofia Sapega were traveling, who were arrested. The Twenty-Seven retaliated by denying Belarusian airlines access to the European Union and asking European carriers not to overfly its airspace.

“State terrorism”

By hijacking the plane, “the Belarusian regime has committed an act of state terrorism and must accept responsibility for these actions,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Thursday, whose country in turn banned its airspace to Belarusian planes. The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell told AFP what the sanctions against Minsk could be: the exports of potash and the transit of Russian gas, two important sources of income for Belarus, are two avenues for the economic sanctions studied by the EU.

Alexander Loukachenko, in direct opposition to the European Union and the United States, claims to have acted “legally” by hijacking the flight. For the Belarusian authorities, the presence on board of Roman Protassevich and therefore his arrest was a matter of chance. But Brussels, Washington and the Belarusian opposition say the bomb threat invoked to land the plane in Minsk was a subterfuge to arrest the journalist.

Belarus accused France of “piracy” for having refused its airspace to a plane flying from Minsk to Barcelona. Austrian Airlines canceled a flight from Vienna to Moscow on Thursday after failing to receive the green light from Russia for a rerouting to avoid Belarusian airspace, the Austrian company said.