European Union leaders on Monday agreed to ban Belarus’ airlines from the bloc’s airspace and urged EU-based carriers not to fly over its airspace after Minsk forced a jet to land to arrest a dissident.
The decision to ban the airlines was announced on Monday evening during an EU summit in Brussels.
Also read: US condemns Belarus’ ‘brazen and shocking act’ of forcing down passenger plane
The leaders of the 27-nation bloc also called for the “immediate release” of journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega from detention, according to the conclusions of a Brussels summit, said an EU spokesman.
The bloc also said it would adopt further “targeted economic sanctions” against the Belarusian authorities to add to the 88 regime figures and seven companies already on a blacklist over a crackdown on opposition.
The move came as Belarusian state television broadcast a 30-second video of Protasevich, who had been living between Lithuania and Poland, confirming that he was in prison in Minsk and “confessing” to charges of organising mass unrest.
The footage showed Protasevich — who could face 15 years in jail — with dark markings visible on his forehead, saying he was being treated “according to the law”.
“This is how (Roman) looks under physical and moral pressure,” exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya wrote on Twitter.
The forced landing of an airliner flying between EU nations has refocused attention on the festering political crisis in Belarus, where Lukashenko has unleashed waves of brutal repression to cling to power.