Polish prosecutors target Belarus officials for plane hijack

A Polish Ryanair plane flying over Belarus was forced to land under a false pretext of a threat, allowing local authorities to arrest opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich. The Polish prosecution plans to issue international arrest warrants for the Belarusian officers involved in hijacking the plane. Investigators learned about the case through recordings from an air traffic controller from Minsk.

On September 4, the District Court in Warsaw decided to arrest the former head of Belarusian air navigation, Leonid Churo, the shift manager of Belarusian air traffic control, Yevgeny Tsiganov, and a high-ranking officer of the Belarusian KGB, as reported by "Gazeta Wyborcza".

The trio has been charged by the National Prosecutor’s Office with an act of terrorism. This concerns the deceitful takeover of control of the Ryanair plane and the unlawful deprivation of freedom of passengers and crew members. Investigators are announcing international arrest warrants for the men, with plans also to pursue them via an Interpol red notice.

The Polish investigation pertains to events from May 23, 2021, when a Ryanair plane (operated by its subsidiary Ryanair Sun), flying from Athens to Vilnius, was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk Airport. The operation was carried out by the Belarusian authorities to detain and arrest Belarusian dissident Raman Pratasevich, who was in Greece with his partner on a short vacation.

When the plane entered Belarusian airspace, the crew was contacted by air traffic controller Oleg. His words are reported by "Gazeta Wyborcza":

- We have information from security services. You have a bomb on board. It will be activated over Vilnius - said Oleg and instructed the plane to land at Minsk Airport.

It later emerged that Oleg was instructed to issue such a statement by his superiors and a Belarusian KGB officer who were present in the control tower that day.

Raman Pratasevich quickly realized it was about him. - They will give me the death penalty here - he reportedly told his fellow passengers. He was an activist and journalist for the opposition Belarusian portal Nexta, which describes the actions of Alexander Lukashenko's regime. He had already been monitored at the airport in Athens, where someone tried to take a photo of his documents. He was returning to Vilnius, where he lived after fleeing Belarus.

The Polish prosecution learned about what had happened in the control tower from Oleg. He testified that the aforementioned three men participated in the takeover of the plane, appearing shortly before the aircraft entered Belarusian airspace.

Oleg quickly began to suspect that there was no terrorist threat and that the entire operation was about arresting someone on board. That is why he began recording his conversations with his superiors using his phone’s voice recorder. Simultaneously, he followed their orders and conveyed the fabricated message to the plane’s pilot. Later, he would tell Polish investigators everything, ensuring he wasn’t charged.

As reported by "Gazeta Wyborcza", the pilot did not comply immediately with the order to land in Minsk. He wanted more information, such as the source of the bomb threat. Finally, after 17 minutes of conversation, he decided to land in Belarus.

When Raman Pratasevich understood the operation aimed to arrest him, he began deleting data from his phone and laptop. He then handed the devices to his partner onboard. The equipment, however, was seized by Belarusian services after landing. Both Pratasevich and his partner were detained.

Following the international investigation, Belarusian authorities urged Oleg to fabricate his report on the events in the control tower. Oleg decided instead to flee the country. Under the pretense of a vacation, he took his family to Georgia.

According to "Gazeta Wyborcza," Oleg reached Poland in June 2021, and at the beginning of July, he contacted Polish authorities. He had his phone with him, containing all the recorded conversations. "The controller's testimony, along with the recordings, became a crucial piece of evidence in the investigation by the Internal Security Agency and the National Prosecutor’s Office," as reported by "GW".

After his detention, Raman Pratasevich confessed, was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and later pardoned by Alexander Lukashenko. Similarly, his partner Sofia Sapega was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

As early as 2022, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council, in their report, recognized that the evidence presented unequivocally indicated that the actions of the Belarusian authorities violated international aviation regulations (Chicago Convention and Montreal Convention) and that the Belarusian authorities deliberately communicated a false bomb threat to force the Ryanair plane to land in Minsk, thereby endangering the passengers.

Source: "Gazeta Wyborcza"