Belarus jails girlfriend of dissident seized after forced plane landing
A Belarusian court on Friday, sentenced Sofia Sapega, the girlfriend of a dissident detained after their commercial flight was forced to land in Belarus last year, to six years in prison for inciting social hatred.
The 24-year-old Russian citizen was flying with her boyfriend Roman Protasevich, a dissident blogger critical of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 when it was diverted to Minsk by Belarusian authorities.
Belarus said, “It had ordered the plane to land after an anonymous tip-off that there was a bomb onboard. The bomb threat turned out to be false, and Protasevich and Sapega were immediately detained.”
However, the news of the flight diversion prompted international outrage and led the European Union and United States to impose more sanctions on Belarus.
“I am sorry for Sofia and her family. No one should suffer from dictatorship,” exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said.
Russian opposition figures criticised their country for not intervening in the case of Sapega despite claims it is protecting Russians abroad, one of the reasons Moscow has used to justify its military campaign in Ukraine.
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Reuters
