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Saturday, 29 May 2021 (YJC) _ The head of Belarusian national airline condemned as "despicable" the decision by numerous EU countries to impose airspace restrictions.
The head of Belarusian national airline Belavia on Saturday condemned as "despicable" the decision by numerous EU countries to impose airspace restrictions on the carrier following the forced landing of a passenger jet in Minsk.
Most of Belarus's neighbours and many other European nations have banned Belavia flights amid outrage over Sunday's forced landing of a Ryanair jet en route to Lithuania from Greece and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board.
The EU has proposed closing its airspace to state-owned Belavia and stopping it from landing at EU airports.
In a post on his Facebook page on Saturday, Belavia director Igor Tcherginets said such steps amounted to sanctions on the carrier, which he described as innocent.
"It is evident that these governments planned not only to close their countries for landing by our airplanes, but also, with an especially fascist perversity, they are closing air corridors one by one. They are mocking us," Tcherginets wrote.
He criticised European governments for imposing the restrictions before the International Civil Aviation Organization had investigated the incident.
"All this is happening before an investigation of the incident, for which there may be some guilty parties, but Belavia is definitely not among them," he added.
"They punish innocent Belavia, without even beginning an investigation. It's despicable."
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