Lukashenka Pardons Sofia Sapega

The woman was handed over to the delegation of the Primorsky Territory of the Russian Federation.

Pardoned by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Sofia Sapega was handed over on June 7 to the delegation of the Primorsky Territory, headed by Governor Oleg Kozhemyako.

“According to our appeal, Aliaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka signed a pardon decree yesterday. I think that such a step is also important for you,” Oleg Kozhemyako told the pardoned woman.

In September last year, the political prisoner was denied pardon.

Sofia Sapega was detained on May 23 last year, together with the former editor-in-chief of the NEXTA Telegram channel Raman Protasevich, at the Minsk airport after the Belarusian authorities landed a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius. The couple was returning from vacation. The woman was accused of administering the Black Book of Belarus Telegram channel, which publishes the personal data of law-enforcers.

The trial began on March 28 and was held behind closed doors. Sapega was charged under seven articles, but found guilty on two — under Part 3 of Article 130 (in the commission of intentional actions aimed at inciting other social enmity, discord on the basis of a different social affiliation, committed by an organized group of persons that entailed other grave consequences), as well as under Part 1 of Article 179 (illegal collection or dissemination of information about private life constituting a personal or family secret of another person, without his consent, resulting in harm to the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the victims).

She was sentenced to six years in a penal colony. Sapega worked as a seamstress in the colony. Earlier in the correspondence, she told her mother that there is a lot of work, everyone works without a break, and her health due to stress deteriorated and “leaves much to be desired.” In one of the letters, the girl asked her mother to promise her that she would pick her up from the colony.