Girlfriend of activist who was dragged off Ryanair plane goes on trial
Girlfriend of Belarusian activist who was dragged off hijacked Ryanair plane forced to land in Minsk faces six years in jail as she goes on trial for ‘inciting social hatred’
- Sofia Sapega, 24, risks six years of jail time as she goes on trial in Belarus today
- She is the girlfriend of activist Roman Protasevich, 26, and was arrested with him
- The closed-door trial began today at a court in the city Hrodna, in Belarus
The Russian girlfriend of Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich, 26 – who was arrested along with him when the activist’s Ryanair flight was forced to land in Minsk on May 23 last year – today went on trial as she faces up to six years in jail.
Sofia Sapega, 24, risks being imprisoned if found guilty of charges including ‘inciting social hatred’ and ‘violence or threats’ against police, Radio Free Europe reports.
The closed-door trial began today at a court in the city Hrodna, in Belarus.
Sofia Sapega, 24, the Russian girlfriend of Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich, 26, today went on trial as she faces up to six years in jail
Sapega is a student of the European Humanities University, now based in Vilnius, after its forced closure by Lukashenko’s authorities in Minsk
After her arrest, Sapega cooperated with authorities and appealed to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for her release.
After their arrests, both Protasevich and Sapega appeared in ‘confession’ videos that their supporters said were recorded under duress and are a common tactic of the regime to pressure critics.
Sapega risks being imprisoned if found guilty of charges including ‘inciting social hatred’ and ‘violence or threats’ against police
Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the pilots there was a bomb threat against the jetliner and ordered it to land in Minsk.
The Belarusian military scrambled a jet in an apparent attempt to encourage the crew to comply with the flight controllers’ orders.
The passenger plane full of tourists had been flying from Athens in Greece to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, when it was escorted by a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet, which reportedly had clearance to shoot, amid reports of a bomb on board.
The airliner was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk Airport in Belarus, where authorities arrested Protasevich, a critic of Lukashenko who founded opposition news outlet Nexta in Poland, along with Sapega.
At the time of her arrest Sapega was a student of the European Humanities University, now based in Vilnius after its forced closure by Lukashenko’s authorities in Minsk.
After their arrests, both Protasevich and Sapega appeared in ‘confession’ videos that their supporters said were recorded under duress
After her arrest, Sapega cooperated with authorities and appealed to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for her release
Protasevich fled to Europe in 2019 from where he co-ran the Nexta Telegram channels, a key Belarus opposition media that helped mobilise protesters during historic rallies against the disputed re-election of Lukashenko.
Last year Sapega’s parents had begged Russian president Vladimir Putin to release their daughter from jail, saying ‘confession’ videos in which she ‘admitted’ to having edited the social media channel that has published personal information about Belarusian police officers, were false.
They added that Sapega did not attend mass anti-government rallies in Minsk last summer, and only met her boyfriend in Lithuania in the New Year.
In January Lukashenko called on exiled activists to return to their homeland to ‘repent and kneel’ after surviving an unprecedented wave of protests in recent years.
The airliner was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk Airport in Belarus, where authorities arrested Protasevich, a critic of Lukashenko along with Sapega
The dictator, who has ruled the nation with an iron fist for almost 30 years, also promised to step down if his compatriots ‘make the decision’ for him at his annual state-of-the-nation address in Minsk.
Mr Lukashenko claimed that no more than 10% of the population opposes his rule, and urged opposition activists in exile to come ‘home, on your knees, grovelling’.
‘My advice to you: come home, repent and kneel,’ he said. ‘It will get worse further on.’
In recent years Lukashenko has faced the strongest demonstrations against his rule in recent years.
Up to 200,000 protestors took to the streets after he claimed to win a sixth consecutive term in office during August 2020 elections, which were said to be ‘rigged’ by Western observers.
Protesters demanded a new ballot and Lukashenko’s removal but faced a brutal crackdown by the authorities, with more than 35,000 arrested and thousands brutally beaten.
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