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By Jonathan Landay and Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -4 Belarusian authorities officers have been charged in the US with plane piracy for diverting a Ryanair flight final Might to arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist who was on board, U.S. prosecutors stated on Thursday.
The fees introduced by the U.S. Division of Justice escalate the worldwide uproar over the Might 23, 2021 pressured touchdown in Minsk of the Ryanair flight and subsequent detention of the journalist Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend.
Belarus has already confronted a wave of sanctions, together with journey bans and asset freezes, from the US, the European Union, Britain and Canada over the diverted flight, which authorities stated was focused by a false bomb risk.
The Belarus embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Ryanair flight 4978 had taken off from Athens, Greece and was scheduled to land in Vilnius, Lithuania, the place prosecutors stated Protasevich, a fierce critic https://www.reuters.com/article/belarus-politics-sapega/belarus-charges-russian-student-it-arrested-after-grounding-plane-idUSL8N2ST4HX of Belarusian chief Alexander Lukashenko, was residing in exile.
The pilots agreed to divert to Minsk https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-withheld-information-ryanair-diversion-probe-un-says-2022-01-19 after a Belarus air site visitors controller declared “code purple,” indicating a reputable risk requiring a right away touchdown.
Based on the prosecutors, passengers had been ordered onto airport buses and detained on the terminal, the place Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega had been led away.
The U.S. Division of Justice stated the defendants embody Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and Oleg Kazyuchits, respectively the director normal and deputy director normal of Belarus’ state air navigation authority; and Belarus state safety officers Andrey Anatolievich Lnu and Fnu Lnu.
All stay at massive. They had been charged in a one-count indictment alleging conspiracy to commit air piracy, which carries a most sentence of life in jail and obligatory minimal sentence of 20 years in jail.
U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams in a press release stated the defendants undermined world efforts to maintain the skies secure “to additional the improper goal of repressing dissent and free speech.”
After being detained in Minsk, Protasevich and Sapega had been positioned below home arrest. Protasevich has been charged with extremism, and Sapega with inciting social hatred.
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