Poland condemns Belarus plane diversion as “act of state terrorism” and calls for EU action

Poland’s prime minister has called the forced landing in Minsk of a Polish-registered Ryanair plane carrying a leading Belarusian opposition activist an “unprecedented act of state terrorism” that “cannot go unpunished”.

The detained man, Raman Pratasevich, is the founder of Nexta, a Warsaw-based media network. He is one of many Belarusian activists to have sought refuge in Poland amid repression in their homeland, particular after August’s presidential election, at which Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory amid widespread evidence of vote rigging.

Top Polish officials have called for European leaders to discuss imposing sanctions on Belarus at today’s European Council summit, with a reported proposal for personal, economic and aviation embargoes.

The Belarusian authorities forced the Vilnius-bound plane flying from Athens to make an emergency landing in Minsk over an alleged bomb threat.

During its stopover, Pratasevich, whose Nexta channels have served to rally Belarus’s opposition, inform about state abuses, and organise protests, was detained. The activist had been declared an extremist by Lukashenko’s government and faces a potential death sentence.

In response, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, called for “determined action towards the Belarusian authorities”, who he said had violated fundamental principles of international law.

Poland’s foreign ministry released a statement saying that the Belarusian authorities had threatened the lives of the aircraft’s passengers and aircraft crew. “The international community cannot leave these actions without a firm answer,” it said.

According to RMF FM, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is “seriously considering” proposing sanctions on Belarus in three areas: “personal, economic and aviation”.

These would include banning anyone involved in Sunday’s incident from entering the EU, shutting down trade relations, as well as stopping Belarus’s national carrier Belavia from flying over EU territory and European flights from crossing Belarussian airspace.

The latter demand was also made by former Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, now an opposition MEP, who called on the EU to ban Belavia from European airspace until Pratasevich is released. He added that the country had “illegally” seized an “EU-protected political refugee”.

Although initial media reports and remarks by some Polish politicians indicated that Pratasevich has been granted asylum in Poland, it was later confirmed that this was not the case. The foreign ministry told TVN24 that he had not completed the procedure, but Pratasevich’s former partner claims his application was rejected.

Former European Council president and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote that Lukashenko had become a “threat not only to his own citizens but also to international security”.

However, while agreeing on the need for a tough EU response, the opposition took the opportunity to criticise Poland’s foreign policy, arguing that its strained relations with the EU – which further deteriorated last week over an EU court order to suspend a major mining operation in Poland – had undermined its international standing.

They also noted the silence on the issue of Jarosław Kaczyński, the chairman of PiS and deputy prime minister who heads a recently created state security committee overseeing the justice, defence and interior ministries.

Borys Budka, leader of the largest opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), asked sarcastically if “the deputy prime minister responsible for security has already said something about forcing a Polish plane to land in Belarus?”

Since mass protests against the Lukashenko regime emerged, Poland’s government has been a vocal supporter of the democratic Belarusian opposition.

In September, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met Morawiecki in Warsaw during her first official trip abroad after fleeing Belarus for exile in Lithuania.

Later that month, the Polish government called for the EU to offer a “Marshall Plan” for Belarus that would provide the country with economic support if it agreed to void the contested elections and instead hold a free and fair vote. It has also provided refuge to hundreds of Belarusian refugees.

Such actions have drawn an angry response from Minsk. Lukashenko accused Poland of seeking to capitalise on the situation in his country by reclaiming former Polish territories from Belarus. No such ambition has been expressed by any mainstream politician or commentator in Poland.

Russia, an ally of Minsk, also criticised the Polish government for “openly interfering in the domestic affairs of the Republic of Belarus”. The Kremlin “urged Warsaw to return to the universally accepted norms of international law and renounce its policy of undermining the sovereignty of its neighbour”.

Recent months have seen a clampdown on Belarus’s large ethnic Polish minority, four of whose leaders have been in detention since March and are facing potential jail terms.

Note: this article had been corrected to acknowledge that initial reports Pratasevich had received asylum in Poland were untrue.

Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Maria Wilczek

Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.