Belarus officials behind hoax that grounded dissident's flight, U.N. agency says

The U.N.'s aviation agency on Tuesday for the first time blamed senior Belarus officials for a hoax last year that grounded a Ryanair Holdings flight and led to the arrest of a dissident reporter. The plane was on its way from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 when Belarus controllers ordered it to land in Minsk, citing a bomb threat. Once it was on the ground, Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich was detained along with his then-girlfriend.The International Civil Aviation Organization, which had previously said it did not know who was behind the hoax, condemned Minsk for "committing an act of unlawful interference" which contravened aviation rules."The ICAO Council acknowledged that the bomb threat against (the flight) ... was deliberately false and endangered its safety, and furthermore that the threat was communicated to the flight crew upon the instructions of senior government officials of Belarus," it said in a statement, citing new information. Russia's representative, it added, strongly objected to the conclusion. Western nations have imposed sanctions against Minsk for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<br/>