Belarus Officials Indicted in Bogus Bomb Threat that Forced Jetliner to Land with Dissident Journalist

Government officials from Belarus who concocted a phony bomb threat last year to force a European jetliner to land with a wanted dissident journalist onboard were charged Thursday by federal prosecutors with airline piracy.

Four Americans were among the 126 passengers on Ryanair flight 4978 on May 23 when the airplane, headed to Lithuania from Greece, flew over Belarusian air space.

Air traffic controllers told the pilots that they had received word of a bomb threat, and sent a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the plane to Minsk National Airport, according to prosecutors.

But there was no bomb, and there was no threat. Officials had contrived the threat to force the plane to land so they could take into custody Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian journalist and political activist who was later held on suspicion of inciting unrest.

“Since the dawn of powered flight, countries around the world have cooperated to keep passenger airplanes safe,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “The defendants shattered those standards by diverting an airplane to further the improper purpose of repressing dissent and free speech.”

The fabricated bomb threat prompted international outrage over what many called a “state-sponsored hijacking.”

The White House, at the time, called the incident “a direct affront to international norms” and called on President Alexander Lukashenko to allow a “credible international investigation” into the events and “immediately release all political prisoners.”

The incident also prompted the Biden administration to reimpose “full blocking sanctions against nine Belarusian state-owned enterprises,” a measure that prohibited Americans from engaging in transactions with those entities.

Manhattan federal prosecutors charged four Belarusian officials with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy.

Leonid Mikalaevich Churo, the director general of the state air navigation authority, was charged along with a deputy, Oleg Kazyuchits.

Also charged were two officers of Belarusian state security services. One person has the first and middle names Andrey Anatolievich; federal officials aren’t sure of his last name. The second security officer’s first and last names aren’t known.

Prosecutors called them “critical participants” in the alleged plot.

“We are committed to holding accountable these central participants in a shocking conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy that not only violated international norms and U.S. criminal law, but also potentially endangered the lives of four U.S. citizens and scores of other innocent passengers on board,” Williams said.

Once the flight landed in Minsk it was met by Belarusian security personnel, including soldiers dressed in camouflage military-style uniforms, some of whom were wearing ski masks and carrying visible firearms, the indictment said.

“Soon after the diversion of the Flight, Belarusian government officials began to cover up what had happened,” the indictment said.

Air traffic authorities were forced to falsify incident reports, according to the indictment.

Belarusian authorities claimed they were responding to a real bomb threat and acting to protect the passengers.

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