The incident caused an international sensation almost a year ago: the Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk. On board: two members of the opposition. One of the two has now been convicted.
Almost a year after the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk, one of the two opposition activists arrested by the Belarusian authorities has now been sentenced to six years in prison, according to civil rights activists.
“A harsh sentence has been handed down against the political prisoner Sofia Sapega: six years in prison and a fine of 167,500 rubles,” said the civil rights center “Vyazna” (“Spring”) on its website.
Sapega is the girlfriend of the Belarusian government critic and blogger Roman Protasevich. They were on a flight from Athens to Vilnius together in May 2021 when the Belarusian authorities forced the Ryanair plane to land in Minsk because of an alleged bomb threat. Protasevich and Sapega were arrested. The EU blocked Belarusian airspace because of the forced landing and imposed a flight ban on airlines from the country.
The Belarusian authorities accuse Sapega of hate speech, incitement to violence and murder, and defamation of representatives of the authorities, the police, and the judiciary. According to media reports, there is still a trial going on against Protasevich. The former editor-in-chief of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta appeared several times on Belarusian state television after his arrest, where he distanced himself from his opposition activities, among other things. Relatives assume that he made his statements under pressure.
Source: Stern
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