Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned Sofia Sapega, a student arrested with her partner, the dissident Roman Protasevich, when their plane was forcibly grounded in 2021.
The president of Belarus has pardoned the girlfriend of a dissident journalist arrested in 2021 after being pulled off a commercial flight that was diverted to the country. A Russian governor reported Wednesday that President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree freeing Sofia Sapega. The governor said Sapega’s parents had asked for leniency after her conviction and sentencing last June to six years imprisonment. She had been awaiting transfer to a prison in her native Russia. Her boyfriend Raman Pratasevich was convicted last month and sentenced to eight years in prison after their dramatic arrest in May 2021 elicited outrage in the West. Some leaders said the plane’s diversion was tantamount to state-sponsored hijacking.
On 7 June Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen pardoned by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, was released from the Gomel prison and handed over to Russia's Primorye Territory delegation led by Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, BelTA has learned.
The president of Belarus has pardoned the girlfriend of a dissident journalist arrested in 2021 after being pulled off a commercial flight that was diverted to the country, a Russian governor repor…