Poland charges 3 Belarusians who forced the diversion of a plane to Minsk in 2021

WARSAW, Poland -- Prosecutors in Poland said Friday they have charged three Belarusian officials with using a ruse to divert a Poland-registered plane and thus violating the freedom of 132 people on board when in 2021 they ordered the plane carrying a dissident blogger to land in Minsk, leading to the arrest of Raman Pratasevich.

The prosecutors said in a statement that because the three Belarussians are not in Poland, they have issued a search warrant for them to be able to present the charges to them. They are also seeking a European arrest warrant.

They identified the three men as Leonid C., a former head of Belarus air navigation, Yevgenii T., an air controller in charge at Minsk airport at the time, and Andrei A.M. the head of the Belarus State Security Committee, KGB.

The three used a false bomb threat to divert the plane which was traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania on May 23, 2021. The Ryanair plane, with some Polish citizens on board, was traveling across Belarus air space at the time.

Belarus officials pulled Pratesevich off the plane, which was then allowed to travel on. The dissident was put on trial and sentenced to eight years in prison after a court convicted him of organizing unrest stemming from a disputed presidential election. He was pardoned in 2023.

The prosecutors based their case on recordings from the plane's cockpit and flight recorders, as well as on the testimonies from the pilots and witnesses. They concluded that the aim of diverting the plane was to have Pratasevich arrested, according to their statement.

Western countries condemned the flight diversion as tantamount to hijacking and imposed strong sanctions against Lukashenko and Belarus.

If convicted, the three officials could face up to five years in a Polish prison.