All news
Updated at: 

Minsk to request legal assistance from Switzerland over Ryanair plane fake bombing

The Belarusian Investigative Committee has said that several false bomb threats against the Ryanair passenger liner had been received in Minsk from the Swiss anonymous email service ProtonMail

MINSK, May 28. /TASS/. The Investigative Committee of Belarus will send a request to Switzerland for legal assistance over the fake bomb threat against the Ryanair plane, the Committee announced Friday.

"In order to confirm the consistency of its intents, the investigation has already prepared and will shortly send a request to the Swiss prosecution for legal assistance in obtaining information about the user of the email account, which the fake bomb threat originated from," the Investigative Committee said on its website.

The investigators have determined that "there were several bomb threat messages that were sent from Switzerland’s ProtonMail anonymous email service."

"At this point, we closely examine and analyze the recording of radio communications with the aircraft crew; numerous other investigative actions are underway," the Investigative Committee said.

The investigators pointed out that the Swiss email service "has repeatedly been involved in criminal cases on terror attacks and bombing threats against various Belarusian infrastructure objects."

"In this regard, we are additionally considering sending all ProtonMail credentials, noted by the law enforcement in fake bomb threats earlier, to Swiss prosecutors. A total of 14 such incident has been registered since the beginning of last year," the Committee said.

The Committee assured that it is "more than interested to determine the true and factual circumstances," adding that it "reviews all facts and versions without exception, in an objective, unbiased and professional manner."

"The Investigative Committee is fully ready and open for interaction with interested and authorized international organizations that carry out investigations of this incident," the Committee said.

The Committee also pointed out that, in the two last years, over 200 cases have been initiated over fake bomb threats to over 1,000 Belarusian infrastructure objects, including 15 criminal cases over bomb threats against the Minsk Airport and various aircraft.