Belarus plane arrest activist Sofia Sapega sentenced to six years
Also: Belarus Ryanair plane arrest student Sofia Sapega jailed for six years (BBC)
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Source: The Guardian
Belarus plane arrest activist Sofia Sapega sentenced to six years
Russian citizen held along with boyfriend a year ago when flight she was on was forced to land
Staff and agencies
Fri 6 May 2022 14.22 BST
Last modified on Fri 6 May 2022 16.43 BST
A woman who ran a Belarusian opposition messaging app channel and was arrested along with her activist boyfriend when an airliner they were on was forced to land in Belarus has been convicted of charges that included inciting social hatred.
Following her conviction, Sofia Sapega was sentenced to six years in prison. Sapega is a Russian citizen, and her lawyer, Anton Gashinsky, said she would appeal to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to intervene.
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 because of an alleged bomb threat.
Protasevich was the editor of Nexta, a popular channel on the Telegram messaging app that was used to help organise protests in Belarus after the president, Alexander Lukashenko, won a disputed sixth term in August 2020.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/06/belarus-plane-arrest-activist-sofia-sapega-sentenced-to-six-years
Belarus charged Sofia Sapega with criminal offences after her arrest (Reuters)
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Source: BBC
Belarus Ryanair plane arrest student Sofia Sapega jailed for six years
6 May 2022
A court in Belarus has sentenced a Russian student to six years in jail, one year after she and her dissident journalist partner were removed from a Ryanair plane and arrested.
Sofia Sapega was travelling with Roman Protasevich to Lithuania when their flight was forcibly diverted to Minsk.
The case sparked worldwide condemnation and fresh sanctions against the government of Alexander Lukashenko.
The court said she was guilty of inciting social enmity and discord.
She was also found guilty of illegally collecting and disseminating information about the private life of an unnamed person without his consent.
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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61347236
