Former NEXTA editor-in-chief Roman Protasevich was sentenced to 8 years

A court in Belarus sentenced the former editor-in-chief of the opposition telegram channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich to 8 years in prison. The prosecution demanded 10 years for the journalist.

Protasevich was found guilty of 11 articles of the criminal code, including organizing mass riots, calls for sanctions against Belarus, and conspiracy to seize power. In April, the charge against him was increased, charging him with “repeated leadership of an extremist formation.”

In addition to Protasevich, Stepan Putilo and Jan Rudik, who are abroad, are also involved in the NEXTA case. They were convicted in absentia and given 20 and 19 years in prison.

Roman Protasevich was detained in Minsk in May 2021, after his plane from Athens to Vilnius was urgently landed by Belarusian air traffic controllers, allegedly due to a message about “mining.” Belarusian security forces also detained Protasevich’s friend, Russian citizen and student of the European Humanities University Sofya Sapega. She was sentenced to 6 years in prison in Belarus in May 2022. She recently agreed to extradition to Russia.