Plane’s diversion to Belarus sparks outrage

BRUSSELS: Western outrage grew and the European Union threatened more sanctions on Monday over the forced diversion of a plane to Belarus in order to arrest an opposition journalist. The dramatic gambit apparently ordered by the country’s authoritarian president to suppress dissent was denounced as piracy, a hijacking and terrorism.

Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through the country’s airspace and ordered it to land in the capital of Minsk. A Belarusian MIG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane — in a brazen show of force by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist for over a quarter-century.

The goal was seemingly the arrest of Raman Pratasevich, a 26-year-old activist and journalist who ran a popu lar messaging app that played a key role in