The plane connecting Athens to Vilnius, diverted this Sunday by Belarus while the opponent of the Roman Protassevich regime was on board, caused the European Union and several governments to react between Sunday and Monday.
Meeting at a summit Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, the heads of state and government of the Twenty-Seven will discuss "
possible sanctions
" against the country, in addition to those already targeting it and which have led its President Alexander Lukashenko to come closer of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Read also: Belarus: an opponent arrested at Minsk airport after an emergency landing
The European Union blasted "
completely unacceptable action
" from Minsk, like Germany, France and Poland, while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for investigations into this "
serious incident. and dangerous
”.
"State piracy"
For its part, France suggested Monday an "
airspace ban
" of Belarus after this hijacking. "
There could also be other measures (...) I am thinking of a measure that must be discussed at European and international level, it is the ban on Belarusian airspace, which is a sanction measure
" , French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune said on
RMC
radio
. "
I want us to look at it as quickly as possible and I think that would be one of the reasonable measures to protect us
," he said.
"
We endangered the lives of European nationals, beyond this opponent,
" he added, recalling that the plane reached two European capitals, Athens and Vilnius, and carried many EU nationals. , including nine French.
"
It also makes less revenue for the Belarusian regime because any overflight of an airspace is a part of air taxes which return
" to the country concerned, he noted.
"
It is an act of state piracy that cannot go unpunished,
" insisted the Secretary of State.
Read also: European TV channel Euronews banned in Belarus
Dublin, for its part, also denounced Monday as an act of
state
"
piracy
" this hijacking, through its Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
“
It was indeed state-sanctioned air piracy,
” Coveney told Irish public broadcaster RTE.
“
We cannot allow this incident to happen with warnings or strong press releases
” as a response, he added, calling for “
sanctions
”.
Bomb alert
Despite the pressures, Minsk continues to defend this hijacking.
The state media in Belarus have indeed considered this reaction normal due to a "
bomb threat
" on board, and presenting the opponent arrested as an "
extremist
".
Moscow also said it was "shocked" by the Western accusations on Monday.
Read also: Belarus: complaint in Germany for "torture" against the Lukashenko regime
Belarusian public television assured that the plane had landed in Minsk because of a "
bomb threat
" which turned out to be false and that Roman Protassevich "did not"
arouse the interest of the forces of the 'order
' only when the passengers '
passed through border control and customs
'. The Telegram channel "
Pool Pervogo
", which acts as an unofficial account of the Belarusian presidency, for its part published a message in order to "
dispel all the myths and speculations
".
Here too, insistently defending the version of the bomb threat, the channel stressed that the device was at that time in Belarusian airspace and that "in
accordance with the standards, the flight controller must propose to the crew to the nearest airport at the time of receipt of the message, ie Minsk airport
”.
"
So what criticism can there be against Belarus, which has learned of the existence of a bomb threat in its airspace?
She continues.
Read also: Belarus: anger of European states after the interception of an airliner carrying a political opponent
“
The fact that there was an extremist among the passengers is not the fault of those who made the decision to provide assistance to the passengers of the aircraft,
” she adds. The Belarusian authorities had entered the name of 26-year-old Roman Protassevich in November on the list of "
individuals involved in terrorist activities
". Its media outlet, Nexta, played an important role in mobilizing crowds during the unprecedented protest movement that rocked the country last year.
