The Belarusian government made a false bomb threat that forced a Ryanair plane flying from Greece to Lithuania to land in the Belarusian capital Minsk. That concludes the UN aviation agency International Civil Aviation Organization Tuesday after investigation. That there was a false bomb threat by Belarus was already suspected, but has now been officially confirmed.
After the plane was forced to land in May last year, 27-year-old Belarusian journalist and activist Roman Pratasevich and 24-year-old Russian law student Sofia Sapega, his girlfriend, were arrested. The two were on their way to their hometown of Vilnius in Lithuania after a holiday in Greece. At the time, Pratasevich worked for Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. No bomb was ever found on board the plane.
According to the UN agency, the Belarusian government has violated the Chicago Convention, which oversees aviation safety, by taking this action. The agency asks UN General António Guterres to consider measures. As a result of the incident, the European Union previously closed its airspace to the Belarusian airline Belavia, among other things.
Sapega was sentenced in May to six years in prison by the Belarusian court, which accused her of “inciting hatred”. The law student posted on her Telegram channel, among other things, personal data of soldiers who helped put down the anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020. Pratasevich has not yet been convicted and was placed under house arrest last year.
Also read: One passenger panicked when the plane changed course