September 6 () –
Poland’s prosecutor’s office on Friday unveiled charges against three Belarusian citizens for their alleged involvement in the 2021 diversion of a Ryanair flight that was forced to land on Belarusian territory and led to the arrest of journalist and activist Roman Protasevich and his partner, Sofia Sapega, who were on the plane.
The spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, Przemyslaw Nowak, said in a statement published on his website that these people, who are not in Polish territory, had acted to force the pilots of the flight – which was covering the route between Athens and Vilnius – to land at Minsk airport.
He stressed that the authorities have issued an arrest warrant against them and revealed that he will submit a request for European arrest warrants to be issued and for Interpol to issue a red notice against these three people, identified as Leonid C., former head of the Belarusian Air Navigation Agency; Yevgenia T., head of air traffic control in Minsk; and Andrei AM, a Belarusian KGB officer.
Nowak stressed that the investigations have made it possible to determine that the flight was diverted by providing “false information” about the alleged existence of an explosive device on the aircraft, which led the pilots to make an emergency landing in Minsk.
In this regard, he noted that the investigations included an analysis of the conversations recorded by the ‘black box’ and added that these actions resulted in the deprivation of liberty of the 132 occupants of the plane and the subsequent arrest of Protasevich.
Belarusian authorities granted a pardon in May 2023 to Protasevich, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison for several crimes, including his role in organizing anti-government protests following the 2020 election and “inciting terrorism.”
Sapega, a Russian blogger, was sentenced in April 2023 to six years in prison for inciting hatred, after which she agreed to be extradited to Russia. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also announced her pardon.
Add Comment