| After
Belarus Downed Ryanair to Grab Pratasevich
SDNY Indictments of Officials at Large
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Video Song
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
UN GATE, Jan 20 –
Right after dissident blogger
Pratasevich was grabbed off a
Ryan Air flight forced to land
in Belarus, many including the
US spoke.
But for more than
a full day, nothing from
Antonio Guterres, the UN
Secretary General who rarely
takes questions and even had
the Press which asked him
about the mass killings in
Cameroon thrown
out of the UN. Alert here;
Belarus Blues song here.
On January
20, 2022 in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York which
Inner City Press covers daily,
banned from the UN for its
questions, this: "the filing
of a one-count indictment
charging LEONID MIKALAEVICH
CHURO, the Director General of
Belaeronavigatsia Republican
Unitary Air Navigation
Services Enterprise
(“Belaeronavigatsia”), the
Belarusian state air
navigation authority; OLEG
KAZYUCHITS, the Deputy
Director General of
Belaeronavigatsia; and two
officers of the Belarusian
state security services,
ANDREY ANATOLIEVICH LNU and
FNU LNU, with conspiracy to
commit aircraft piracy for
engineering the diversion of
Ryanair Flight 4978 (the
“Flight”)—which was carrying
four U.S. nationals and more
than 100 other passengers on
board—while it was in flight
over Belarus on May 23, 2021,
for the purpose of arresting a
dissident Belarusian
journalist who was on board
the Flight. The case is
assigned to U.S. District
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer."
But they remain
at large. Guess who is NOT
coming to Disney World?
On
December 2 US Antony Blinken
said, "In coordination with
international allies and
partners, today we are taking
additional measures to raise
the cost on Alyaksandr
Lukashenka and his regime for
their ongoing attacks on
democracy, human rights, and
international norms, and for
their brutal repression of
Belarusians both inside and
outside the country. These
steps represent our third
coordinated action with allies
this year and are a further
consequence of the Belarusian
authorities continued flagrant
disregard for human rights and
Belarus’s failure to comply
with its obligations under
international human rights
law. Pursuant to
Executive Orders 13405 and
14038, the U.S. Department of
the Treasury’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
has identified three aircraft
as blocked property and
designated 32 individuals and
entities, including Belarusian
state-owned enterprises,
government officials, and
other persons, who support the
regime and facilitate its
repression. Additionally, OFAC
has issued a directive
prohibiting certain activities
involving new debt with a
maturity of greater than 90
days issued by the Belarusian
Ministry of Finance or the
Development Bank of the
Republic of Belarus."
On July 5,
the UN was promoting a HRC 47
session by its special
rapporteur on Belarus Anais
Marin. But just a few minutes
into her presentation on UNTV
to an empty room in Geneva,
the webcast went dark. They
claim it went all of 29
minutes, but after Minute 13,
it is silent darkness, see here, and FUNCA
Question here.
This is Antonio Guterres' UN -
a place of incompetence,
unaccountability and
censorship. It must change.
Now late and
hypocritical, given that they
have done nothing about
Guterres banning
Inner City Press now for
1099 days amid its questions,
this: "The co-chairs of the
United Nations Group of
Friends for the Protection of
Journalists – Greece, France
and Lithuania - and the
undersigned Members of the
Group of Friends strongly
condemn the forced landing of
a Ryanair flight in Minsk,
Belarus, on May 23, 2021,
prompted by Belarusian
authorities in order to arrest
and detain independent
journalist Raman Pratasevich
and his companion, Sofia
Sapega...
[See see this and this
at UN.]
Signed,
Co-chairs of the UN Group of
Friends for the Protection of
Journalists, Ambassadors,
Permanent Representatives of
Greece, France and
Lithuania
Annex:
Co-signatories members of the
Group of Friends (in
alphabetical order): Austria,
Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa
Rica, Ghana, Latvia, Republic
of Korea, Sweden, Switzerland,
the UK, USA, Uruguay."
The Free UN
Coalition for Access (FUNCA)
continues.
***
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