Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An aeroplane travelling between Athens and Vilnius was diverted with the threat of a bomb, with a MiG-29 becoming part of the operation and with the return of terminology related to the KGB. It is like something out of a bad film. It is "Die Hard" without John McClane. The problem is there was no hero and a crime was without doubt committed. It was international piracy and state-sponsored hijacking. There have been many headlines in recent years that we would not have anticipated, but we would never have predicted this.

I assume that on some level, people in Belarus would say, "No shock here". We are talking about Alexander Lukashenko. To put it mildly, we look at that state and know that "democratic deficit" is the nicest way one could talk about it. There have been significant human rights abuses and considerable knocks to democracy, and the people who live there do so under severe pressure. Moreover, this is big-boy politics, big-boy play. This is an attempt to show how powerful Lukashenko is. This is a lesson to his enemies, at home and abroad, that he can do business and get them anywhere. We really need to take action.

I welcome what we are doing in this debate, with full support in the House for the motion, and what the EU has done, managing to get unanimity and sanctions. I also welcome the fact that the US is going to follow through with sanctions, because that is all very necessary. This crime was committed so that Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, could be detained. It is difficult to believe this happened in the modern world, but sometimes people get into positions of power and do not see any restraints or controls. We can get a result only through sanctions, putting pressure on them and ensuring that the world knows and that they are made to feel that theirs is a pariah state. That is what needs to happen here. We need to follow through on this and that is necessary.

We know there are internal issues in the EU. Other Deputies have spoken about its rule of law difficulties, particularly in regard to Hungary and Poland, and they need to be dealt with. The wider issue of Catalonian elected representatives facing sanctions they should not face is utterly wrong as well. Furthermore, it would be remiss of me not to mention the historic motion that my colleague, Deputy Brady, recently tabled. We secured agreement to call out the reality of the Israeli annexation and stealing of Palestinian lands. It was brilliant, effective and necessary that we got that work done in the House last week, but that will matter only if we bring it to another place, namely, back to the EU and the international community.

It should be the case that we stand up for rights, human rights and for people’s rights across the world and ensure international criminality, human rights abuses and slaughter is called out. We should demand international law and deal with international criminals. We support full sanctions in relation to this utterly international criminal act by the Lukashenko regime. However, we also call for others to be dealt with in the same way. Whether than can be achieved throughout the European Union, I doubt it very much. Ireland, along with many other countries that are willing to sign up to the reality of breaches of international law by the Israelis, must put pressure on them and other rule breakers, other international criminals, and to demand the rights of people.

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