EU agrees sanctions against Belarus for Ryanair ‘hijacking’
The EU has today agreed economic sanctions against Belarus after Alexander Lukashenko’s regime forced a flight to land to detain a dissident journalist.
The Austrian foreign ministry and a number of dissidents said that a technical agreement on the sanctions, the toughest yet response to the incident, had been reached.
The punishment, if they are agreed at the political level, includes a ban on new loans, a ban on EU investors from trading securities or buying short-term bonds and a ban on EU banks from providing investment services.
“With this agreement the EU is sending a clear and targeted signal against the Belarusian regime’s unbearable acts of repression,” the Austrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
EU leaders meet next Thursday for a summit. It was not yet clear if they will approve the deal agreed by expert officials.
On May 23 Lukashenko’s regime scrambled fighter jets to escort a Ryanair flight carrying journalist Roman Protasevich to Minsk. He said that 26-year-old was plotting rebellion against him.
The move met with outrage from global leaders, who called it an act of state piracy.
The arrest came after months of protests against Lukashenko, who won reelection in a controversial poll last August.
The EU has already imposed three rounds of sanctions on individuals, including Lukashenko, since last year, freezing their assets in the EU and banning travel.