A woman who ran a Belarusian opposition news channel and was arrested along with her activist boyfriend when the airliner they were on was forced to land in Belarus has been convicted on charges of inciting social hatred.
After her conviction, Sofia Sapega was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Sapega is a Russian citizen, and her lawyer, Anton Gashinski, has said she will intervene with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sapega and Roman Protasevich were flying from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, a year ago when their plane was ordered to land in Belarus, accompanied by a fighter jet due to an alleged bomb threat.
Protasevich was the editor of Nexta, a popular channel in the Telegram news app, which was used to stage protests in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko won a controversial sixth term in August 2020.
Sapega launched another Telegram channel, which published the personal data of government and military officials involved in the mass crackdown on the protests.
Western countries have condemned the plane’s diversion as tantamount to air piracy by Belarus. The European Union has banned Belarusian airlines from airspace and airports as part of sanctions against the country.
“I feel sorry for Sofia and her family. No one should suffer from a dictatorship,” Belarusian opposition exile leader Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya tweeted after Friday’s sentencing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sapega would receive help, but declined to comment on the verdict.
“She is a citizen of Russia, so in any case, through our diplomats and other channels, we will continue to defend her legitimate interests,” he told reporters during a conference call.
Asked if he thought the sentence was fair, Peskov said: “We don’t like it when someone comments on the decisions of our courts, so we will not comment on the court’s decision in friendly Belarus.
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The post-election protests were the most serious challenge to Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule since he first took office in 1994.
The protests drew up to 200,000 people in the Belarusian capital in a few days and lasted for several months. Authorities responded with severe repression, with police arresting more than 35,000 people and beating thousands. Leading opposition figures have been imprisoned or forced into exile.
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