EU cuts air links with Belarus over forced plane landing
- 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".
BRUSSELS: EU leaders cut Europe's air links with Belarus on Monday, as strongman Alexander Lukashenko's regime paraded a dissident journalist arrested after his flight was forced to land in Minsk.
Lukashenko sparked international outrage by dispatching a fighter jet Sunday to intercept a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying wanted reporter Roman Protasevich, 26, and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega.
European leaders meeting in Brussels called for the release of the pair and hit back at Minsk by agreeing to ban Belarusian airlines from the bloc and urging EU-based carriers not to fly over its airspace.
The leaders also warned they 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".
US President Joe Biden slammed the forced diversion of the plane and arrest of Protasevich as "a direct affront to international norms" and said the video appeared to have been made "under duress".
"I welcome the news that the European Union has called for targeted economic sanctions and other measures, and have asked my team to develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible," Biden said, in a White House statement.
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