Status: 01/21/2022 03:25 a.m
The US prosecutor has filed charges for the forced landing of a passenger plane in Minsk. The accused are considered fugitives.
US prosecutors have indicted four Belarusian government officials for the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk last year. The four officials are accused of aircraft piracy, the New York prosecutor said.
The Belarusian authorities had stated that a bomb threat was the reason for asking the pilot to land. The American investigators said it was an excuse to arrest an opposition journalist.
The plane was en route from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, with 125 people on board on May 23 when Belarusian air traffic controllers told it to change course to Minsk. After landing there, the journalist Raman Pratasevich was taken out of the plane and arrested. The 26-year-old helped organize mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
US citizens on board the diverted plane
“Since the dawn of powered flight, countries around the world have worked together to ensure the safety of passenger planes,” said US Attorney Damian Williams. The defendants broke these standards by diverting a plane to quell anti-government opposition and freedom of expression.
The US authorities based their jurisdiction on the fact that American citizens were on board the diverted plane. The director general of the state aviation safety authority in Belarus and his deputy were named in the indictment. Two security officers were also charged, whose full identities are not known to US prosecutors.
US prosecutors described the defendants as fugitives and said they were charged with conspiracy to piracy. If convicted, they face a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.
After the incident last year, the European Union immediately banned Belarusian airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27 member states. She urged EU-based airlines not to fly over Belarus and imposed sanctions on some Belarusian officials.