THE FOREIGN Secretary has suspended flights from the UK to Belarus following the 'outlandish' actions of the country's leader.
Dominic Raab announced to MPs that carriers were being instructed not to fly over Belarusian airspace, after a Ryanair plane was ordered to land yesterday to enable the arrest of an opponent of the country’s regime.
Mr Raab also said that the UK Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA) was being instructed to "suspend the operating permit of Belarusian airline Belavia with immediate effect" and added: "As a precautionary measure the [UK CAA] will be instructed not to issue any further ad-hoc permits to any other carriers flying between the UK and Belarus".
READ MORE: Roman Protasevich: Belarus accused of Ryanair hijack to arrest dissent
The circumstances which led to the arrest of Roman Protasevich have been described as a hijacking operation by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s government.
Mr Protasevich was on board the flight from Athens to Vilnius when it changed course to head for Minsk after an alleged bomb scare.
Mr Raab said the incident "represents a danger to civilian flights everywhere" while addressing MPs this afternoon.
He said: "The Lukashenko regime engaged in a particularly calculating and cynical ploy to force a civilian flight to land under the hoax of a bomb alert - behaviour which is as dangerous as it is deceitful and a flagrant violation of international law."
READ MORE: West condemns plane's diversion to arrest Belarus journalist
The SNP's Alyn Smith said the incident was "a clear breach of Article 3 and 4 of the Chicago Convention" adding: "But it's almost unimaginable that we've seen over the weekend a state hijacking of a civilian aircraft going between two EU and NATO capitals. This cannot stand and we must work with our international allies on this."
He urged the UK Government to "go a bit further" in terms of expressing solidarity" by "actually giving practical aid to Belarusian activists, journalists, and agitators, making asylum easier to claim within the UK for these brave individuals."
Mr Smith, the MP for Stirling, added that there would "surely have been some Russian involvement" in the incident, asking Mr Raab "what assessment his department has made of Russian involvement in this action?"
He said: "It seems unforeseeable that this could have just been a unilateral act by Minsk. "There was surely some Russian involvement. Would he have consequences for the Russian state, as well as the Belarusian state when things are decided?"
Mr Raab responded: "We don't have any clear details on that. I'll be careful what I say at this point, but as he says it's very difficult to believe that this kind of action could have been taken without at least the acquiescence of the authorities in Moscow, but as I say, it is unclear as yet."
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