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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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)