UN Aviation Agency Says Belarus Commiitted 'Unlawaful' Act By Diverting Ryanair Flight

A fact-finding mission by the UN’s civil aviation agency has alleged Belarus committed an "act of unlawful interference" by diverting a Ryanair passenger flight bound for Vilnius to Minsk in order to arrest a dissident journalist.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said late on July 19 that an investigative report on the incident had been completed and that it condemned the actions of the Belarusian government, which claimed it had received a bomb threat and needed to divert the plane to Minsk, even though its destination was actually the closest airport at the time.

The Montreal-based ICAO said that its council "acknowledged that the bomb threat against Ryanair Flight FR4978 was deliberately false and endangered its safety."

Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend at the time, Sofia Sapega, were detained in May 2021 after the flight landed in Minsk.

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Many Western countries have called Belarus’s action a "state hijacking." Britain and the European Union responded to the incident by telling airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace and banning the country's flagship carrier Belavia from their airspace.

The ICAO noted that Russia's representative on the council expressed a "strong objection to identifying Belarus as the source of the unlawful interference which took place."

The agency said it had recommended forwarding the investigation report to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "for consideration and any appropriate action."

Since a disputed 2020 presidential election handed authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term, Belarusian security officials have cracked down hard on any dissent, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.

Several protesters have been killed, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture by security officials against some of those detained.