aircraft piracy

The new report, updated from one earlier this year, fills in important details about the gambit, which was also the subject of a New York federal grand jury indictment Jan. 20 charging Belarus officials with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy.

Western powers responded with a wave of new sanctions and the United States this month charged four Belarus officials with aircraft piracy.

United States prosecutors in Manhattan have charged four officials of the government of Belarus with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy in the 2021 forced landing of a European airliner in Minsk, where a prominent opposition journalist aboard the plane was seized.

“We are committed to holding accountable these central participants in a shocking conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy that not only violated international norms and U.S. criminal law, but also potentially endangered the lives of four U.S. citizens and scores of other innocent passengers on board,” Mr. Williams said.

The indictment unsealed Thursday charges Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and Oleg Kazyuchits with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy.