Italy's foreign ministry on Monday summoned Belarus' most senior diplomat in Rome to protest the forced landing in Minsk of a Ryanair flight and the arrest of dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich and his girlfriend.
Deputy foreign minister Benedetto Dalla Vedova "convened a meeting at the foreign ministry with the acting Belarus ambassador", the foreign ministry tweeted, referring to charge d’affaires at the Belarusian embassy, Dmitry Yarmolyuk.
"Strong condemnation of the hijacking (on Sunday) of the Ryanair flight, the detention of its passengers and the arrest of Roman Pratasevich, the tweet continued.
"We demand his immediate release. We are ready to adopt targeted European Union measures in order than Minsk releases all its political prisoners," the tweet added.
Ahead of a special EU summit, where sanctions against Belarus will be discussed, Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen condemned what she called the "utterly unacceptable hijacking of a Ryanair flight".
Belarus says the flight from Athens to Vilnius was diverted because of a bomb threat from Palestinian militant group Hamas - a claim denied by Hamas.
Lithuanian police said the decision to land in Minsk was made by the plane's crew in consultation with Ryanair's management. Ryanair has not made public an account of any such decision-making.
