Belarus authorities reiterated on Monday (24) that they acted legally when they hijacked a plane with a dissident on board and accused Western countries of presenting “unfounded” accusations for political reasons.
“There is no doubt that the actions of our competent authorities (…) have fully complied with established international standards,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman, Anatoly Glaz, in a statement, in which he accused the West of ” politicize “the situation.
“They are making baseless accusations,” added Glaz, before saying it was “sad” that passengers “faced some inconvenience.
“However, aviation safety standards are an absolute priority,” he added.
President Alexander Lukashenko’s government sparked a wave of protests in the West after diverting the Ryanair plane traveling between Athens and Vilnius to Minsk to detain a passenger, the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
Authorities said the plane had to make an emergency landing in the Belarusian capital after a bomb alert. But the bomb threat was false.
The European Union (EU), the United States and the United Kingdom have criticized the incident, which France and Ireland on Monday called “state piracy” and Poland called “state terrorism”.
EU leaders are expected to address the issue on Monday and possible sanctions on Minsk, a European Council spokesman said on Sunday.
At the same time, Russia declared itself surprised by Western accusations against Belarus.
“It is surprising that the West considers the Belarusian airspace incident to be surprising,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook, before stating that Western countries have been guilty in the past of “kidnappings” , forced landings and illegal detentions “.
