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| - Ireland on Monday described the forced diversion of a flight operated by Irish airline Ryanair carrying a Belarusian opposition activist as a "state-sponsored" act of "aviation piracy". "We cannot allow this incident to pass on the basis of warnings or strong press releases," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told state broadcaster RTE. "I think there has to be real edge to the sanctions that are applied on the back of this." "This was effectively aviation piracy, state-sponsored," Coveney said. Dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was detained on Sunday after a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was intercepted by a Belarusian fighter jet and diverted to the capital of Minsk, state TV reported. EU leaders are to meet later on Monday and are expected to toughen santions against the eastern European state. "It was an Irish airline, a plane that was registered in Poland, full of EU nationals, travelling between two EU capitals," said Coveney. "This can only be described as aviation piracy," he added. "I think the EU has to give a very clear response to it otherwise we're giving all the wrong signals." Dublin-headquartered Ryanair is renowned for ultra low-cost, short-haul flights across the continental bloc. Favoured by budget holidaymakers, the carrier is an unlikely participant in a high stakes diplomatic crisis. "I think it's the first time it's happened to a European airline," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told Ireland's Newstalk radio. "It was a state-sponsored hijacking, it was state-sponsored piracy." jts/jj/wdb
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