The United States prosecutors in Manhattan have charged four officials of the government of Belarus with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy in the forced landing of a European airliner in Minsk, where a prominent opposition journalist was seized.
The charge was contained in an indictment.
A fighter jet was sent to intercept a plane carrying 170 passengers from Athens to Vilnius,Lithuania, after a bomb threat was made. His seizure and the forcing down of the plane led to international outrage.
It is a image.
The flight was grounded and Roman Protasevich, a journalist, was taken into custody.
The indictment says that the bomb threat was a ruse by senior officials in the capital of Belarus.
The move was seen as a sign of how far Mr. Lukashenko was willing to go to suppress dissent in his country.
Mr. Lukashenko is not charged in the indictment. The indictment named the director general of the air navigation authority, his deputy, and two officers of the country's security services.
According to the statement by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, the defendants are based in Belarus and are at large.
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