The International Civil Aviation Organization released their findings report today that found senior Belarusian government officials ordered the bomb threat that grounded Ryanair Flight FR4978 on May 23rd, 2021 which allowed the arrest of opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who are still under house arrest in Belarus.
The report reads:
“The latest updates to the ICAO fact-finding investigation report into the incident benefited from new information and materials following the Council’s initial consideration of the report in January 2022, as well as an interview and audio recordings from the Minsk air traffic controller assigned to the flight.
Following its consideration of the completed fact-finding results, the ICAO Council acknowledged that the bomb threat against Ryanair Flight FR4978 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.
The Council Representative for the Russian Federation meanwhile expressed his State’s strong objection to identifying Belarus as the source of the unlawful interference which took place.”
