The U.S. Justice Department charged four Belarusian officials with air piracy Thursday for last year's forced diversion of a Ryanair flight to arrest Roman Protasevich, a dissident Belarusian journalist, on board.

Two top officials of the state air navigation authority and two security officials were accused of conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy for allegedly taking part in a fake bomb scare scheme to force the aircraft to land in Minsk on May 23, 2021.

The Belarusian Embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.