US to reimpose sanctions on Belarus over forced plane landing

The Biden administration said late Friday that it would reimpose economic sanctions on certain state-owned companies in Belarus, the latest diplomatic pushback from a Western government after the country’s authoritarian leader forced down a European passenger jet last weekend. The plane, a Ryanair Boeing 737 headed from Greece to Lithuania, was traveling through Belarusian airspace on Sunday when it was diverted and forced to land in Minsk, the capital, with an escort from a fighter jet. Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition journalist who had been living in exile abroad, was detained along with his girlfriend after the plane landed. Belarus’s president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, has claimed that he rerouted the plane because of an emailed bomb threat. But a Swiss email provider has said that the email cited by the Belarusian authorities was sent after the plane had already been diverted. Leaders of European Union countries, outraged by what some called a state hijacking, have pledged to impose new economic sanctions against Lukashenko’s government and have begun severing direct air links to Belarus. President Biden this week directed his team “to develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible” for the forced landing, in coordination with the European Union and other partners.<br/>