UPDATE 1-U.S. charges Belarus officials with aircraft piracy over diverted Ryanair flight

Yahoo! Finance Jan 20, 2022 05:15 PM ET

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday it has charged four Belarusian government officials with aircraft piracy for diverting a Ryanair flight last May to arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist who was on board. U.S. prosecutors said the officials conspired to use a false bomb threat to divert Ryanair flight 4978 to Minsk on May 23, 2021 from its scheduled trip to Vilnius, Lithuania from Athens, Greece. The Justice Department said the defendants include Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and ...