Translated material
Sofya Sapega was pardoned in Belarus
Russian woman Sofya Sapega was pardoned in Belarus. She was a defendant in the case against the protest telegram channel NEXTA.
Sapega was sentenced to 6 years in prison in Belarus in May 2022. Sapega wrote an application for pardon, but she was refused .
On April 10, the Russian consul visited political prisoner Sofia Sapega in Belarus and received her consent to extradition to Russia. The Russian Embassy reported this to TASS.
Context
The former editor-in-chief of the Nexta telegram channel Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofya Sapega were detained in Minsk on May 23, 2021. They were flying from Athens to Vilnius, but their plane was grounded after a false report of a bomb on board.
Sofya Sapega was found guilty of illegally collecting information about private life and inciting war and discord. According to investigators, she ran telegram channels aimed at “discrediting the current government of Belarus and its law enforcement bloc, inciting social discord, hostility, as well as organizing crimes against certain categories of citizens.”