Poland orders arrests over diversion of Belarus journalist’s plane in 2021
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Airport personnel and security forces on the tarmac, in front of a Ryanair flight which was forced to land in Minsk, Belarus, on May 23, 2021.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WARSAW – A Polish court on Sept 6 ordered the arrest of three Belarusian officials accused of illegally diverting a Ryanair flight in 2021 in order to seize a dissident journalist on board.
Air traffic control officials forced the plane heading from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk
Following investigations, “the Warsaw regional court announced three arrest orders for three people” involved in the diverting of the Polish-registered plane, the tribunal’s spokeswoman, Ms Anna Ptaszek said.
Poland’s state prosecution service identified them as a former director of the Belarusian aviation agency, a team leader at Minsk air traffic control and an official from Belarus’ KGB security service.
The three men are residents outside Poland, but the court orders “allow prosecutors to seek procedures to pursue them internationally”, Ms Ptaszek said.
The court said the three face possible sentences of 15 years for diverting an aircraft on aggravated charges, categorising it as a “terrorist” action.
Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza cited audio recordings from the Minsk airport control tower on the day of the flight that were leaked by a controller who later fled to Poland.
In January 2022, a New York federal court charged four Belarusians with “conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy”.
The UN International Civil Aviation Organisation called the diversion “unlawful”.
The bomb threat “was deliberately false” and was ordered by “senior government officials of Belarus”, it said, in a statement in July 2022.
Mr Protasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023
