Brussels, June 16, (dpa/GNA) – The EU states have agreed on another extensive package of sanctions to be slapped on supporters of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Seventy-eight individuals are to be hit with measures like EU travel bans or having assets located in the bloc frozen following an agreement by representatives of member states on Wednesday, EU sources told dpa.
At least seven entities such as state institutions or companies, are also to be targeted, according to the same sources.
Due to the ongoing repression of the democracy movement in Belarus, the EU had already adopted several packages of sanctions targeting Lukashenko’s supporters last year, as well as the president himself.
There have been mass protests against Lukashenko ever since an August 2020 presidential election that the EU believes was neither free nor fair.
Last month, Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair passenger plane on its way from Athens to Vilnius to make a stopover in Minsk and arrested the government critic Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega on board.
The EU then imposed fresh sanctions on the former Soviet republic, and since early June, Belarusian airlines are no longer allowed to fly into EU airspace.
Most of the targets in the sanctions package agreed on Wednesday are accused of helping to repress demonstrators, opposition figures or journalists, but others were chosen for a link to the Ryanair flight diversion.
GNA