October 31, BPN. Belarus’ envoy to the UN Valancin Rybakoŭ has said the launch of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s task force to investigate the 2021 Ryanair incident contradicted the ICAO mandate, setting a “dangerous precedent for manipulating the fundamentals of civil aviation security.”
The remarks he made at a UN Security Council briefing on the ICAO’s findings were quoted by SB.by.
“For many years now, western states have been waging a large-scale political, economic and information war against Belarus… Today’s meeting is another manifestation of that war,” he said.
Rybakoŭ slammed the ICAO’s report as biased and written under western nation’s pressure.
On May 23, 2021 a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land at a Minsk airport. The authorities arrested two passengers, opposition blogger and activist Raman Pratasievič and his girlfriend Sofya Sapega (Safija Sapieha).
Sapega, a Russian national, is now serving a six-year sentence for allegedly administering an opposition Telegram channel. Pratasievič is still under investigation and is believed to be cooperating with the state.
EU airlines stopped flying over Belarus after the incident, and Belarusian carriers were barred from entering the bloc’s airspace.
On July 19, the ICAO Council said the 2021 Ryanair flight diversion by Belarus was unlawful as the bomb threat was “deliberately false” and was “communicated to the flight crew upon the instructions of senior government officials of Belarus.”
According to the ICAO, it endangered the safety of the aircraft and violated the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and the Montreal Convention, regulating international carriage by air.
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