{"id":1438073,"date":"2021-05-28T06:40:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T22:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/?p=1438073"},"modified":"2021-05-28T07:34:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T23:34:00","slug":"un-aviation-body-to-launch-probe-into-belarus-plane-diversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/1438073\/un-aviation-body-to-launch-probe-into-belarus-plane-diversion","title":{"rendered":"UN aviation body to launch probe into Belarus plane diversion"},"content":{"rendered":"
MONTREAL<\/span>, Canada<\/span>\u00a0— The UN civil aviation agency will launch an investigation into the May 23 diversion by Belarus of a European flight and arrest of a dissident on board, it announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council “decided to undertake a fact-finding investigation of this event,” the statement said.<\/p>\n It added that, at a meeting, the body “underlined the importance of establishing the facts of what happened, and of understanding whether there had been any breach by any ICAO Member State of international aviation law.”<\/p>\n The council “requested the ICAO Secretariat to prepare an interim report to the Council for a subsequent meeting of the current session.”<\/p>\n Belarus’s strongman President Alexander Lukashenko sparked international outrage by dispatching a fighter jet Sunday to intercept a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius\u00a0carrying opposition journalist and activist Roman Protasevich, 26, and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23<\/p>\n His parents pleaded Thursday for international help to get him released, and the G7 global powers also demanded he be freed, with the EU’s foreign policy chief threatening economic sanctions.<\/p>\n The ICAO, of which Belarus is a member, has no power to order sanctions. But European leaders this week agreed to cut air links with Belarus and told airlines to avoid the country’s airspace.<\/p>\n Its meeting Thursday came after Western powers on the UN Security Council called on it to investigate, echoing an earlier call from NATO.<\/p>\n But Russia’s support for Minsk means the UN Security Council is unlikely to agree on a collective statement.UN aviation body to launch probe into Belarus<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UN civil aviation agency will launch an investigation into the May 23 diversion by Belarus of a European flight and arrest of a dissident on board, it announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":1436311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,43],"tags":[176696,192121],"byline":[],"source":[206065],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n