Belarus Court Sentences Russian Citizen Sapega to 6 Years in Prison

GRODNO, Belarus (Sputnik) - Russian citizen Sofia Sapega was detained in Belarus last May, where she faced charges including organising threats to security officials and inciting hatred. The trial began on 28 March.

A Grodno regional court has sentenced Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, accused of violations of seven articles of the Belarusian criminal code, to six years of imprisonment, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Friday.

In May, the Belarusian authorities arrested Sapega along with her Belarusian boyfriend Roman Protasevich, a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, which is critical of President Lukashenko and has been labelled as extremist in Belarus. The two were charged with releasing private data about Belarusian security officers into the public domain.

Sapega and Protasevich were transferred to home detention in late June 2021. The Investigation Committee of Belarus stated that the preventive measure was changed after the defendants agreed to cooperate with the investigation.