UN aviation body to meet over Belarus plane diversion

MINSK: The UN civil aviation agency will hold an urgent meeting Thursday to discuss Belarus after Western powers on the UN Security Council called for the body to investigate Minsk's diversion of a European flight and arrest of a dissident.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council will meet as the consequences of the incident play out in Europe's airspace, with a Barcelona-bound flight from Minsk refused access to French airspace, and Poland banning Belarusian carriers on Wednesday.

But a defiant President Alexander Lukashenko said he had "acted lawfully to protect our people", in an address to parliament on Wednesday.

In his first public statement since the Ryanair flight was diverted and opposition journalist and activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend were arrested on Sunday, Lukashenko dismissed the international outcry.

The criticism was nothing more than another attempt by his opponents to undermine his rule, he said, accusing them of waging a "modern, hybrid war" against Belarus and of crossing "boundaries of common sense and human morality".

Lukashenko -- often dubbed "Europe's last dictator" -- is facing some of the strongest international pressure of his nearly 27 years ruling ex-Soviet Belarus.

He and his allies are already under a series of Western sanctions over a brutal crackdown on mass protests that followed his disputed re-election to a sixth term last August.

But he continues to enjoy solid support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is hosting the Belarusian leader on Friday. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday there was no reason to doubt Lukashenko's version of events.

Air links cut

The ICAO, of which Belarus is a member state, said on Monday that it was "strongly concerned by the apparent forced landing."

Under the 1944 convention that established the ICAO, every state has sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.

But the text also says signatories must "refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight and that, in the case of interception, the lives of persons on board and the safety of aircraft must not be endangered".

The Athens-to-Vilnius flight was diverted over a supposed bomb scare, with Lukashenko scrambling a MiG-29 fighter jet to accompany the aircraft.

Lukashenko on Wednesday denied that the fighter jet had forced the airliner to land, calling such claims an "absolute lie".

Once the plane landed, Protasevich -- the 26-year-old co-founder of opposition Telegram channel Nexta that coordinated protests last year against Lukashenko -- and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested.

The ICAO has no power to impose sanctions. But European leaders this week agreed to cut air links with Belarus and told airlines to avoid the country's airspace.

On Wednesday, a Minsk-to-Barcelona passenger flight by Belarusian state carrier Belavia was forced to turn back after being denied entry to French airspace, while Poland banned Belarusian flights from using its airspace.

Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that flight bans should not stop Belarusians from being able to flee the regime.

But she said she supported the EU's actions as "reasonable" and that Belarusians "cannot blame anyone for this except the regime".