Estonia on Thursday banned Belarusian flights from using its airspace after Belarus arrested a dissident journalist on a diverted flight. "The government has decided to ban Belarusian airlines or aircraft departing from the country from landing on Estonian territory, taking off from here or going through Estonian airspace," the cabinet of ministers said in a statement. Belarus sparked global fury by diverting an Athens-Vilnius Ryanair plane on Sunday and arresting an exiled dissident in Minsk. "By hijacking... the passenger plane and detaining the journalist critical of the government and his partner, the Belarusian regime committed an act of state terrorism and must accept responsibility for these actions", Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said, quoted in a government statement. European leaders this week agreed to cut air links with Belarus and told airlines to avoid the country's airspace. Poland, which shares a long border with Belarus, announced a ban on Belarusian flights using its airspace on Wednesday. That same day a Belarusian passenger plane flying from Minsk to Barcelona was denied passage through French airspace and turned back. kal-amj/spm