Taoiseach Micheál Martin has welcomed the fresh sanctions on the Belarusian regime announced by EU leaders last night, saying the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk was an attack on the European Union itself and on EU citizens.
He said there was genuine anger and shock among EU leaders at what he called the "reckless" nature of the episode which "endangered the safety of European citizens at its most basic level, but also in terms of the act itself by a government to force down a commercial airplane in that manner".
There was a global outcry after the Belarus authorities forced Ryanair flight 4978 from Athens to Vilnius to land at Minsk airport on Sunday morning in order to arrest and detain opposition journalist Roman Protasevich.
Authorities had claimed there was a bomb threat by Hamas, but in reality it was a pretext to pull Mr Protasevich and his partner Sofia Sapega from the plane, arrest and detain them.
Fresh sanctions have been imposed against individuals and companies connected to the regime, as well as economic sanctions.
EU leaders also banned the Belarus state airline from entering EU airspace and landing at EU airports.
Mr Martin said the sanctions were designed to send a clear message to the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko that "behaviour of this kind" has consequences, adding that it followed last year's elections, widely seen as rigged, and what he called "repeated and consistent bad behaviour".
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Speaking ahead of the second day of an informal EU summit, the Taoiseach acknowledged that sanctions historically did not always have the desired outcome, but that Europe's strongest leverage against Belarus was economic.
"But we also want to affirm the values of democracy, the rule of law and freedom of association, freedom of speech, and this is being denied to Belarus and citizens and the European Union simply has to take action," he told reporters.
Last night, Mr Protasevich was paraded on a pro-Lukashenko television channel, saying he had "confessed" to organising unrest after last year's presidential elections, which were widely seen as being rigged.
In a video posted online, the 26-year-old said he was in good health.
In the video on the Telegram messaging app, he wore a dark sweatshirt and clasped his hands tightly in front of him. The comments were immediately dismissed by his allies, including his father, as having been made under duress.
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EU leaders demanded the immediate release of the couple, and swiftly agreed a series of sanctions targeting individuals and companies linked to the regime, as well as against a number of economic sectors.
They banned the state airline Belavia from using EU airspace or landing at EU airports, and banned EU carriers from entering Belarusian airspace.
Belarus lies on the flight path of routes within Europe and between Europe and Asia, and skirting Belarus would slow flights down and cost airlines money.
The EU and the United States imposed several rounds of financial sanctions against Minsk last year, which had no effect on the behaviour of Mr Lukashenko, who withstood mass demonstrations against his rule after a disputed election.
He denies election fraud. Since the disputed vote, authorities have rounded up thousands of his opponents, with major opposition figures now in jail or exile.
A friend of Mr Protasevich said he was concerned when he heard he had been detained in Belarus and does not believe it is possible for him to get a fair trial.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Alex Kokcharov, a London-based political risk analyst, said he seriously doubts that the video of Mr Protasevich confessing to crimes is a genuine confession.
Mr Kokcharov said the leverage of the EU or the West as a whole in Belarus is relatively limited and sanctions will not have an immediate impact.
Meanwhile, Air France, Finnair and Singapore Airlines became the latest carriers to suspend flights over Belarus.
Air France said in a statement it had "taken note" of the conclusions of yesterday's EU summit and had suspended flights over Belarus "until further notice".
Planes already in the air will have their flight plans modified, the French company said.
Singapore Airlines was also rerouting flights "that are bound for Europe to avoid the Belarusian airspace" and would continue to "closely monitor the situation", a spokesperson said.
"The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority," a spokesperson told AFP.
Finnair said the next flight that will be affected by its decision to reroute planes is one that was heading to the Turkish coastal town of Gazipasa tomorrow.
Scandinavian airline SAS, Germany's Lufthansa and Latvia-based regional airline Air Baltic made similar announcements yesterday.
Britain also issued instructions for British aircraft to avoid Belarusian airspace while Ukraine decided to halt direct flights between the two countries and over Belarus.
Additional reporting AFP, Reuters
