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The Belarusian government was behind the bomb threat that forced a plane
belonging to Irish low-cost airline Ryanair to land in 2021, which was en
route from Greece to Lithuania. That is what the UN's International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) says for the first time on Tuesday. After the
landing, opposition member Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend were arrested.
 
Belarus has long been accused of forcing the plane to land, although the
government of President Alexander Lukashenko has always denied this. In early
2022, four high-ranking officials of the country were charged in the United
States with air piracy. But ICAO had previously said it was not sure who was
behind the bomb threat.
 
Now the agency is coming back to that. "ICAO acknowledges that the bomb threat
was intentionally false and endangered safety. ICAO also acknowledges that the
report was communicated to the crew of the aircraft by senior officials in
Belarus," the agency said in a statement.

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