"Unacceptable".
France denounced Sunday the "hijacking" by the Belarusian authorities of a plane carrying a Belarusian opponent and demanded a "firm and united response" from the 27 EU member states.
“The Belarusian authorities' hijacking of a @Ryanair flight is unacceptable.
A firm and united response from the Europeans is essential, ”
declared the head of French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian on Twitter.
Several European countries including Germany and Poland were also outraged after the interception by a Belarusian fighter of this plane which was carrying the opposition activist Roman Protassevich and the arrest of the latter, according to the opposition, at the Minsk airport. The plane, of the company Ryanair, was coming from Athens bound for Vilnius, in Lithuania, when the plane was deviated from its original path for "bomb threat".
EU leaders jointly called on Belarus to allow the rerouted Ryanair plane to leave in Minsk on Sunday, and to allow
"all its passengers"
to continue their journey, lambasting
"completely unacceptable action "
.
“We hold the government of Belarus responsible for the safety of all passengers and the aircraft.
ALL passengers must be able to continue their journey immediately
,
”
tweeted EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell.
Chain protests
"We need an immediate explanation from the government of Belarus on the rerouting inside the European Union of a Ryanair flight to Minsk and the alleged arrest of a journalist,"
said senior German Foreign Ministry official Miguel Berger on Twitter. "
An act of state terrorism
", for Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who wrote on Twitter:
"I condemn in the strongest terms the arrest of Roman Protassevich by the Belarusian authorities after a passenger flight from Ryanair has been hijacked.
"
"I will talk about it at the EU summit in Brussels"
next week, said Gitanas Nauseda, the Lithuanian president who described Sunday as an
"abject act"
the arrest of the opponent Roman Protassevich .
"He has been arrested, the regime is behind this abject act"
wrote President Gitanas Nauseda on Twitter, before adding:.
"I demand the emergency release of Roman Protassevich!"
, he continued, calling on NATO and the European Union, of which Lithuania is a member, to
"immediately react to the threat posed by the Belarusian regime to international civil aviation"
, furthermore Mr. Nauseda said in a separate statement released by his office.
Read also: Belarus: without illusion, the European Union will talk about sanctions again
Exile in Lithuania
Lithuania has granted refugee status to Roman Protassevich, a former collaborator of Nexta, a media outlet that played a leading role in the great wave of protest against the re-election in 2020 of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held this post since 1994 The protest then gradually faltered in the face of mass arrests, police violence that left at least four people dead, ongoing judicial harassment and heavy prison sentences imposed on activists and journalists.
Belarusian opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya also lives in exile in Lithuania.