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Brussels: The European Union has agreed to impose sanctions against Belarus, including banning Belarusian airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc, amid fury over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist.
EU leaders have called the “hijacking” of the Ryanair jetliner flying from Greece to Lithuania on Sunday as brazen, they also demanded the immediate release of the journalist, Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Credit:EPA
A brief video clip of Pratasevich, who ran a popular messaging app that played a key role in helping organise massive protests against Lukashenko, was shown on Belarusian state television on Monday night, a day after he was removed from the Ryanair flight. (Raman is the Belarusian spelling of Pratasevich’s first name.)