Foreign Relations & International Law

Four Belarusian Officials Charged With Conspiracy to Commit Aircraft Piracy

Katherine Pompilio
Thursday, January 20, 2022, 5:24 PM

According to the indictment, Leonid Mikalaevich Churo, Oleg Kazyuchits, Andrey Anatolievich Lnu and Fnu Lnu allegedly engineered the May 23 diversion and forced landing of Ryanair Flight 4978, to detain a dissident journalist onboard the aircraft.

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On Jan. 20, U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan charged four Belarusian government officials with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy. According to the indictment, Leonid Mikalaevich Churo, Oleg Kazyuchits, Andrey Anatolievich Lnu and Fnu Lnu engineered the May 23 diversion and forced landing of Ryanair Flight 4978 in Minsk, to detain a dissident journalist onboard the aircraft. The defendants remain at large.

You can read the indictment here and below:


Katherine Pompilio is an associate editor of Lawfare. She holds a B.A. with honors in political science from Skidmore College.

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