Airlines re-route to avoid Belarus, opposition says journalist beaten

Rights groups have documented hundreds of cases of what they describe as abuse and forced confessions during a crackdown on pro-democracy opponents of Lukashenko since last year.

Airlines re-routed flights to avoid Belarus's airspace on Tuesday and Belarusian planes faced a possible ban from Europe, as international outrage mounted over Minsk forcing down a jetliner and arresting a dissident journalist on board. Western nations accused Belarus of hijacking and piracy over the interception of the Ryanair plane as it crossed the country on a flight from Greece to Lithuania, and diplomats said France, Ireland and Estonia would raise the incident at a private meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday. "The behaviour of the Belarus regime is outrageous, illegal, and completely unacceptable ... we also condemn this kind of dangerous interference in civil aviation," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.