BREAKING NEWS

The U.S. charged four Belarus officials with piracy in the forced landing of an airliner in Minsk, where an opposition journalist was seized.

Thursday, January 20, 2022 4:40 PM EST

In response to a purported bomb threat, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, Belarus's authoritarian president, sent a fighter jet on May 23 to intercept the Ryanair Boeing 737-800 carrying some 170 passengers from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania — among them the journalist, Roman Protasevich.

The forcing down of the plane and his seizure led to international outrage.

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