EU eyes sanctions that hit close to Belarus leader

LISBON, Portugal — European Union nations sketched out plans Thursday for new sanctions against Belarus, targeting economic sectors close to its authoritarian leader, as they sought to strike back at him for the diversion of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist.

Meeting in Lisbon, EU foreign ministers vowed to continue ramping up pressure on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — whose disdain for democratic norms and human rights has made his country a pariah in the West.

The country’s isolation has only deepened since Sunday, when Belarusian flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair jet about a bomb threat and instructed it to land in Minsk, where journalist Raman Pratasevich was pulled off the plane.

A list of EU sanctions in place against senior members of the Belarus government, including Lukashenko, “isn’t having the dissuasive effect we need,” said Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva.

Amid the testy standoff, Belarus did get some help from its ally Russia, which refused to allow two Moscow-bound jetliners to change their flight paths to avoid Belarus’ airspace.

As the EU works to hold Lukashenko to account, Pratasevich’s parents appealed at a news conference in Poland for help from the international community to free their 26-year-old son.

“I want you to hear my cry, the cry of my soul. So that you understand how difficult it is for us now and how much we are experiencing this situation,” said his mother, Natalia Pratasevich. “I am begging you, help me free my son.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc would not ease up on Belarus. “We need to move more swiftly on sanctions,” he said after the informal Lisbon gathering.