MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. The conclusions that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had made in its final report on the incident with the Ryanair aircraft were blatantly anti-Belarusian, Ivan Nechayev, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's information and press department said at a briefing on Thursday, noting that there was no objective and open investigation.
"In general, the report and the decision <...> are of openly anti-Belarusian nature. One gets the impression that the sole purpose of the investigation was not to establish the facts, but to find ways to accuse Belarus. <...> We regret to state that an objective and open examination of the situation, which was advocated by the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, failed," he said.
The diplomat also noted that the ICAO Council has once again refused to consider the issue raised by Minsk on the illegal EU restrictions against the Belarusian air companies, its discussion under false pretexts has been delayed again.
Ryanair incident
On May 23, 2021, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair flight that took off from Athens was forced to make an emergency landing in the Belarusian capital of Minsk after a reported bomb threat. News later emerged that Roman Protasevich, wanted in Belarus, had been among the flight’s passengers. He was detained by Belarusian law enforcement agents together with Russian national Sofia Sapega.
Following the incident, the European Union barred Belarusian air companies from operating flights to EU airports and using the European Union’s airspace, and recommended that European air carriers should avoid Belarusian airspace. ICAO concluded in its report that the information about the presence of a bomb on board the plane was deliberately false. Minsk stated that the document was categorically unacceptable and discredited the ICAO.