The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recognized that the Belarusian authorities are responsible for the forced landing of the Ryanair plane with the oppositionist Roman Protasevich. The incident occurred in May 2021 in Minsk.
Reuters writes about it.
Earlier, the ICAO stated that they do not know who exactly was the initiator of the story about the fake mining in order to land the plane. Now Belarusian officials have been officially accused of this.
"The ICAO Council recognized that the threat of mining the flight [...] was deliberately false and threatened its safety. In addition, the threat was brought to the attention of the flight crew at the direction of senior officials of the government of Belarus," the organization believes.
Only the representative of Russia in the ICAO Council categorically opposed such a conclusion, all others supported such a statement.
- On May 23, Roman Protasevich, the former editor-in-chief of the opposition Telegram channel NEXTA, was detained at the Minsk airport. The Ryanair plane (Athens — Vilnius) was made an emergency landing in Minsk due to information about landmines, which was not confirmed in the end. A MiG-29 fighter rose to accompany the plane.
- After that, a number of countries, including Ukraine, stopped air connections with Belarus, and "Belavia" flights were banned. After that, Belarus received sanctions.
- In December 2021, the Belarusian air traffic controller, who participated in the landing of the plane with Protasevich, said that the operation was managed by the KDB of Belarus. Subsequently, the Polish special services made public the recording of the conversation between the dispatcher and the pilot.
- On January 21, 2022, the United States accused four Belarusian officials of air piracy, including state security personnel. These individuals face life imprisonment if the States prove their guilt.