The UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting tomorrow May 26 on Belarus after the hijacking of Ryanair’s passenger plane. Diplomatic sources from the UNHCR make it known. The EU members of the Council wanted the meeting behind closed doors. On the evening of the 24th, the 27 adopted sanctions against Minsk for the deviation of the area which led to the arrest of Prosatevich, journalist and blogger “guilty” of complaints against Lukashenko’s authoritarianism. The measures include a no-fly zone over the skies of Belarus and the freezing of 3 billion euros in aid.
The Belarusian government, for its part, has denied the hijacking allegations, arguing that the flight landed in Minsk due to a bomb placed on board by the Palestinian group of Hamas. The reconstruction was later denied by the Palestinian organization itself, which defines the hypotheses of approaching the episode that dates back to 23 May as “outrageous”. “They are lies – he replied – The Hamas campaign is only against the occupation of Israel”, said the group that governs the Gaza Strip “.
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Sofia Sapega, Prosatevich’s companion, arrested
Meanwhile, Prosatevich wasn’t the only one in the sights. His partner, the Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, who was arrested together with the opponent in Minsk, was arrested for two months. This was reported by Meduza quoting her lawyer Alexander Filanovich. “Sofia was interrogated today. She was accused of a crime. A preventive measure was ordered: detention for two months. The place of detention is the KGB Preventive Detention Center. The investigation is conducted by the Chief Investigation Department of the Belarusian Investigation Committee. A non-disclosure agreement was signed. Adequate legal assistance has been and will continue to be provided to you ”.
Kremlin, Lukashenko will report details of the Ryanair operation to Putin
The Kremlin confirms, albeit partially, the upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Lukashenko. But, it is specified, it is a meeting “scheduled for some time, before the events on Sunday”. It will take place “in the last days of this month” (yesterday the Kommersant newspaper anticipated that the interview would be held on Friday in Sochi). “If the meeting is actually held, President Lukashenko will certainly have an opportunity to provide the Russian head of state with an explanation of the circumstances and causes of what happened”, in relation to the hijacking of the Ryanair flight and the subsequent arrest of the journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner, the young Russian Sofia Sapega. “We will announce the date and place of the meeting soon,” explained the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. Moscow’s possible assistance in Minsk “in relation to the Ryanair flight depends on what Belarus will say at the meeting with Putin,” Peskov concluded.