The incident with the forced landing of the Ryanair civil airliner at the Minsk airport became the number 1 topic in the world. The "ElitExpert" agency decided to leave aside the political component of the situation and look at the incident purely from a legal point of view, turning to a well-known lawyer who manages the "Shavrov and Partners" law office, Ihor Shavrov.
"The available information contains many facts. which can be analyzed from a legal point of view, he noted. — Firstly, what do the documents say about such cases, and secondly, is it legal to raise combat aircraft to intercept a civilian airliner? Let's try to figure it out."
There are two documents that regulate this topic. This is the Chicago Convention of 1947, to which Belarus joined in 1992, and the Montreal Convention of the United Nations of 1971, which deals with flight safety issues. According to the Chicago Convention, each state has full sovereignty over its airspace. However, this sovereignty does not give countries the right to limit civil aviation flights as they see fit.
According to article 3-bis of the Chicago Convention, the authorities of any country may require the landing of a civil aircraft at any of its airfields, but the authorities must have good reasons for doing so. For example, if the plane entered the country's airspace without permission, or there are reasonable suspicions that the airliner is performing functions contrary to its civil status: transporting military cargo, conducting spy surveys of foreign territory, or trying to fly over an area that is officially prohibited for flights.
Obviously, none of these reasons are suitable for the forced landing in Minsk of a civilian airliner that was heading to Vilnius strictly according to the pre-agreed flight plan. However, it is still not clear how exactly the pilot of the Ryanair plane made the decision to land in Minsk and whether he was under pressure. The airline management stated that the plane was "stolen". But Minsk claims that the pilot made the decision on his own — after the airport dispatchers informed him of a threat to blow up the plane.
In the latter case, it is not clear why the commander chose Minsk. At the moment when he began to turn in the direction of this airport, the plane was much closer to Vilnius, that is, the airport of the flight's destination.
"Thus, in order to clarify the fault of one or the other party, it is necessary to find out whether the captain of the aircraft made the decision to land the plane in Minsk on his own or under pressure," the lawyer emphasizes.
"And here the second question arises: is it legal to lift military fighters into the air at all? It depends on whether the fighter escorted the plane or still tried to intercept it. The difference is huge - when a ship is intercepted, the fighter shows with its wings or signal lights what the crew of the intercepted liner needs to do. If the fighter simply accompanies the ship, it flies nearby and does nothing. In that case, it can be absolutely legal," Igor Shavrov noted.
The authorities of countries can intercept civilian liners only "in the most extreme case", when all other ways to eliminate violations have been exhausted. At the same time, she must announce this publicly.
What legal consequences, not taking into account political ones, does this incident have? According to the Chicago Convention, the International Civil Aviation Organization can impose sanctions on the authorities of Belarus or take any other decision within its competence.
If any countries (Ireland as the "family" of the ship's airline; Lithuania or Greece as the states between which the flight took place) believe that the actions of Minsk violated the safety of flights, the case may be considered within the framework of the Montreal Convention "On Combating with illegal acts directed against the safety of civil aviation".
The Convention considers an unequivocal crime, including "provision of knowingly false information" that violated the safety of flights. Minsk will not only have to find the person who provided false information about the mining, but also promptly inform interested parties about all the details of the investigation. If these countries do not satisfy the message from Minsk, they can apply to the international court. However, Minsk is not obliged to obey the decisions of this court, as Belarus at the time signed the Montreal Convention with the proviso that it does not recognize this court.
As for the situation with the arrest of Roman Protasevich, we can only say here that the European Convention on Human Rights does not apply on the territory of the Republic of Belarus," concluded Igor Shavrov.
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