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NYT: Minsk Air Traffic Controller Escaped To Poland And Testified About Landing Ryanair Plane

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NYT: Minsk Air Traffic Controller Escaped To Poland And Testified About Landing Ryanair Plane
ALEH HALEHAU

The plane landing was an operation of the Belarusian KGB.

This summer, the air traffic controller from Minsk crossed the Polish border with migrants and testified about the forced landing of a Ryanair plane with Raman Pratasevich in Minsk. This information was published by the New York Times on Wednesday. The newspaper refers to the sources in the European security services, who wished to remain anonymous, as they are not authorized to discuss confidential information.

It is reported that the air traffic controller worked at Minsk National Airport and flew to Poland several weeks after the plane landing scandal. After his escape, he provided detailed testimony that the Ryanair plane was the target of a faked terrorist attack that was part of a Belarusian intelligence operation to capture Pratasevich.

The NYT sources gave the name of the controller - Aleh Halehau, a native of Georgia, married to a Belarussian. In July, the oldest Belarusian newspaper "Nasha Niva" reported that dispatcher Halehau had not been at work since June and his superiors could not get in touch with him, but one of his colleagues said at the time that Halehau had allegedly gone on vacation to his native Georgia. Subsequently there was no clear information about him, he deleted all his accounts in social networks.

According to the newspaper sources, it was Halehau, being on duty in the control room, who had to convince the plane pilot that he had a "bomb" on board and that he couldn't fly to Vilnius. When in Poland, the man immediately went to the U.S. embassy, according to intelligence officials, but there he was sent to the Polish authorities.

The NYT asked the press secretary of the Polish secret service coordinator, Stanislaw Zaryn, for a comment. He would not give details, but confirmed that Polish investigators into the Ryanair hijacking had "obtained the testimony of a direct witness to the events that took place at the control tower in Minsk." Zaryn added that according to the witness, there was a KGB officer in the tower, who took control of the air traffic controllers at the crucial moment and was giving a continuous report to someone via phone throughout the incident.

The testimony of the fleeing dispatcher, says the New York Times, was very helpful to the Polish prosecutor's office investigating the incident (the plane on which the flight was made is registered in Poland and belongs to the Polish branch of Ryanair).

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