You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

European Union Sanctions Belarus over “Hijacking” of Ryanair Plane and “Kidnapping” of Journalist

HeadlineMay 25, 2021

The European Union announced sanctions against Belarus Monday, one day after it diverted a commercial flight to Minsk in order to arrest a journalist critical of Belarus’s authoritarian president. On Sunday, Belarus scrambled a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair flight after falsely reporting a bomb threat. The interception sparked panic among passengers. After landing in Minsk, police arrested 26-year-old Roman Protasevich, a journalist who covered recent demonstrations calling for an end to the 27-year rule of Alexander Lukashenko.

Protasevich appeared in a video posted online Monday, saying he was being held in a Minsk detention center, and confessing to having “organized mass unrest in the city of Minsk.” The video shows Protasevich with a mark on his forehead, raising questions about whether he had been beaten.

European leaders have described Protasevich’s arrest as a state-sponsored hijacking and kidnapping, and on Monday called on airlines not to fly over Belarus, while barring Belarusian airlines from EU airspace and airports. This is European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Ursula von der Leyen: “This is an attack on freedom of expression, and this is an attack on European sovereignty. And this outrageous behavior needs a strong answer.”

President Joe Biden applauded EU sanctions and said he ordered his administration to hold Belarus accountable. 

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top