U.S. charges Belarus officials with aircraft piracy over diverted Ryanair flight

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday it has charged four Belarusian government officials with aircraft piracy for diverting a Ryanair flight last May to arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist who was on board. U.S. prosecutors said the officials conspired to use a false bomb threat to divert Ryanair flight 4978 to Minsk on May 23, 2021 from its scheduled trip to Vilnius, Lithuania from Athens, Greece.

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday it has charged four Belarusian government officials with aircraft piracy for diverting a Ryanair flight last May to arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist who was on board.

U.S. prosecutors said the officials conspired to use a false bomb threat to divert Ryanair flight 4978 to Minsk on May 23, 2021 from its scheduled trip to Vilnius, Lithuania from Athens, Greece. According to the prosecutors, passengers were ordered onto airport buses and later detained at the terminal, where the journalist and his girlfriend were led away. No bomb was found, prosecutors added.

The Justice Department said the defendants include Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and Oleg Kazyuchits, respectively the director general and deputy director general of Belarus' state air navigation authority; and Belarus state security officers Andrey Anatolievich Lnu and Fnu Lnu. They were charged in a one-count indictment alleging conspiracy to commit air piracy, and remain at large, the department said.

Belarus' embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.