Lukashenko pardons Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, who was arrested after forced Ryanair landing in 2021

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko pardoned Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, who was previously sentenced by a Belarusian court to six years in prison, reports the Belarusian state-run news agency Belta.

Sapega was handed over to a delegation from Russia’s Far Eastern Primorsky Krai [where Sapega was born] on June 7, according to Belta. The region’s governor wrote on his Telegram channel that Sapega “received a unique chance to start a new life.”

• Sapega was arrested in May 2021 alongside her partner, the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, after the Belarusian authorities forcibly diverted their Ryanair flight to Minsk. As an administrator of The Black Book of Belarus, a Telegram channel that published information about members of the Belarusian law enforcement, Sapega was tried for inciting discord and privacy infringement.