EU leaders agree on Belarus sanctions after plane diversion apnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from apnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A prominent opponent of Belarus authoritarian president was arrested Sunday after the airliner in which he was traveling was diverted to the country after a bomb threat, in what the opposition and Western officials denounced as a hijacking operation by the government.
EU leaders agree on Belarus sanctions after plane diversion
RAF CASERT, SAMUEL PETREQUIN and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press
May 24, 2021
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1of20Protesters attach paper planes during a demonstration of Belarusians living in Poland and Poles supporting them in front of European Commission office in Warsaw demanding freedom for Belarus opposition activist Raman Protasevich in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, May 24, 2021. Western outrage grew and the European Union threatened more sanctions Monday against Belarus over its forced diversion of a passenger jet to the capital of Minsk in order to arrest opposition journalist Raman Protasevich in a dramatic gambit that some said amounted to state terrorism or piracy.Czarek Sokolowski/APShow MoreShow Less
Outrage grew and the European Union threatened more sanctions Monday over the forced diversion of a plane to Belarus in order to arrest an opposition journalist.
Updated: May 24 2021, 21:33 ET
JOE Biden slammed the arrest of Belorussian journalist Raman Pratasevich as outrageous after a confession video was made under duress.
The president also called the removal and arrest of the journalist a direct affront to international norms, in a statement released on Monday.
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Biden said the video of Pratasevich appears to have been made under duressCredit: Reuters The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal and arrest of Mr. Pratasevich, the statement says. This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press.