{"id":258842,"date":"2021-05-25T23:39:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T20:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/belarus-isolation-grows-after-journalists-dramatic-arrest\/"},"modified":"2021-05-25T23:39:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T20:39:21","slug":"belarus-isolation-grows-after-journalists-dramatic-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/belarus-isolation-grows-after-journalists-dramatic-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"#Belarus\u2019 isolation grows after journalist\u2019s dramatic arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Belarus\u2019 isolation grows after journalist\u2019s dramatic arrest<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

BRUSSELS \u2014 Belarus\u2019 isolation deepened Tuesday as commercial jets avoided its airspace, the European Union worked up new sanctions, and officials expressed concern for the welfare of an opposition journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a plane that was diverted to Minsk in what the West called a state-sponsored hijacking.<\/p>\n

The dramatic developments put a spotlight on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s iron-fisted rule and suppression of dissent \u2014 but it was not clear what effect more sanctions or other measures would have.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional sanctions? Will this be sufficient? I absolutely can\u2019t say today,\u201d said French President Emmanuel Macron. But, he added: \u201dThe unacceptable character of what happ<\/a>ened \u2026 justifies them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his detention, opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich was seen in a brief video clip on Belarusian state television late Monday, speaking rapidly to say that he was confessing to some of the charges authorities have leveled against him.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson for the U.N.\u2019s human rights office, Rupert Colville, said Pratasevich\u2019s appearance likely was not voluntary and that he seemed to have bruising to his face, although it was difficult to tell from the video.<\/p>\n

Asked about the video, German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed with Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Boris Johnson that it was \u201cworrying and disturbing\u201d and makes the EU demand for his release \u201call the more urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we will use all channels at our disposal to do this,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old journalist and activist was arrested Sunday after Belarusian flight controllers ordered the Ryanair jetliner he was aboard to land, telling the crew that there was a bomb threat against the flight. A Belarusian fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane to Minsk, just before it was to land in Vilnius, Lithuania, from Athens, Greece.<\/p>\n

In an unusually swift response to the arrest and flight diversion, EU leaders agreed Monday to ban Belarusian airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc and impose sanctions on officials linked to the diversion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe measures of restricting flights in particular \u2026 are extremely biting on the Belarus system,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n

\"European
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media<\/a> conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Tuesday, May 25, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The EU demanded Pratasevich\u2019s release and urged the International Civil Aviation Organization to investigate the diversion, while recommending European carriers avoid Belarus\u2019 airspace. Polish carrier LOT and Baltic airlines began bypassing the country, while Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and others said they will follow suit.<\/p>\n

Belarus has defended its actions. Its Transport Ministry said Tuesday it has invited international aviation, U.S. and EU authorities to investigate the diversion.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the brazen move, Belarus\u2019 first post-Soviet leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, urged the West to introduce even tougher sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelarus has become a \u2018black hole\u2019 of Europe with repressions reaching a catastrophic scale and its dictator scrambling fighter jets and threatening the entire world,\u201d Shushkevich told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. \u201cThe West must understand that only increasing pressure and really tough sanctions could impact Lukashenko and limit repressions.\u201d<\/p>\n

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc will introduce more sanctions that will target \u201cbusinesses and economic entities that are financing this regime\u201d and her Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that \u201cany dictator who toys with such thoughts must know that there will be a bitter price to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maas said Lukashenko\u2019s action \u201cis hard to beat in terms of perfidy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lives of more than 170 passengers were endangered here to arrest a journalist. It\u2019s a threefold attack \u2014 an attack on the safety of air traffic, on press freedom and the European citizens on board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And the EU plans to target companies close to Lukashenko. \u201cWe know that in this country, the major state companies make the money. This is going to hit them and everything is targeted towards making them feel the sting,\u201d said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko has faced unprecedented pressure at home with months of protests triggered by his reelection to a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition rejected as rigged. But he has only doubled down on repression, and more than 35,000 people have been arrested since the protests began, with thousands beaten.<\/p>\n

\"Belarus
Belarus journalist Raman Pratasevich speaks to a camera in a prison in Minsk, Belarus.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some say more sanctions will do little to alleviate the situation and will only push Belarus even closer to its main sponsor and ally, Russia, and reduce the influence of the EU and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cLukashenko will become an increasingly easy prey for the Kremlin,\u201d said Alexander Klaskouski, an independent Minsk-based political analyst. \u201cAs a pariah country, Belarus will find it much more difficult to fend off the Kremlin demands for the introduction of a single currency, the deployment of air bases and access to lucrative Belarusian economic assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the West condemned Belarus, the crackdown continued Tuesday. Pavel Seviarynets, the leader of the opposition Christian-Democratic Party, was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost leaders of Belarus\u2019 political parties have been either jailed or forced to flee the country,\u201d said Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna human rights center. \u201cBelarus is facing an acute human rights crisis \u2026 amid unprecedented political repressions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pratasevich, who left Belarus in 2019, has become a top foe of Lukashenko with a popular messaging app he ran playing a key role in helping organize the huge protests, and authorities have increasingly tried to limit his influence.<\/p>\n

The Telegram app\u2019s Nexta channel that he co-founded has been labeled \u201cextremist\u201d by Belarusian authorities. Stsiapan Putsila, another co-founder of Nexta, told AP that he and his colleagues have received \u201cthousands of threats\u201d in the past to blow up their office in Warsaw.<\/p>\n

Pratasevich had been charged in absentia with staging mass riots and fanning social hatred. Those carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years, and some fear Pratasevich could face more serious charges, including some that carry the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Colville, the U.N. human rights official, said Pratasevich\u2019s brief appearance on Belarus state TV \u201cwas not reassuring, given the apparent bruising to his face, and the strong likelihood that his appearance was not voluntary and his \u2018confession\u2019 to serious crimes was forced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pratasevich\u2019s 23-year-old Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who also was removed from the flight and detained, spoke in a video from custody shown on state TV. In it, she said she had been working as the editor of a Telegram channel that revealed personal data about Belarus\u2019 security officers amid the protests. Her lawyers had said earlier in the day that she has been jailed for two months, pending an investigation.<\/p>\n

The main opposition candidate in the last election, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left the country immediately after the vote under official pressure, said she urged the U.S. to move to suspend Belarus\u2019 membership in the ICAO and Interpol.<\/p>\n

Tsikhanouskaya also pushed for the G-7 to invite a Belarusian opposition delegation to its summit in London next month and thanked Macron for supporting her bid. But Max Blain, a spokesman for the British prime minister, said \u201cthe invite list for G-7 is already set\u201d and wasn\u2019t aware of any request from Macron to invite the opposition.<\/p>\n

The France-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with the prosecutor general<\/a>\u2019s office in Vilnius against Lukashenko \u201cand any other persons the investigation would identify as liable for instigating or committing the crime.\u201c It noted that under Lithuanian law, the use of force against a civilian aircraft to force it to change its route \u201cunder the false pretext of a bomb threat\u201d constitutes the crime of hijacking.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Belarus\u2019 isolation grows after journalist\u2019s dramatic arrest” BRUSSELS \u2014 Belarus\u2019 isolation deepened Tuesday as commercial jets avoided its airspace, the European Union worked up new sanctions, and officials expressed concern for the welfare of an opposition journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a plane that was diverted to Minsk in what the West…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/brussels-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[107165,71428,74257,75241,72705],"class_list":["post-258842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-25-21","tag-angela-merkel","tag-belarus","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-european-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}