President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko this Wednesday pardoned Russian Sofya Sapega, a girlfriend of Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich, who was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to six years in prison for “inciting hatred and enmity for ideological reasons.”
Sofya Sapega, imprisoned in the Belarusian city of Gomel, was received by a delegation from the Primorsky Territory of Russia, headed by its governor Oleg Kozhemyako, upon leaving the institution, the Belarusian news agency BELTA reports.
Oleg Kozhemyako pointed out that the pardon is an “important” decision for Sapieha, who took the opportunity to thank Lukashenka for the decision.
“This is a gift not only for me, but for my whole family,” he said, emphasizing that it was a “second chance” that “was given to few,” and explaining that now his main goal is to recover from an experience that he lived.
Sofia Sapega and her partner Roman Protasevich were arrested in May 2021 while checking the documents of passengers on an Irish airline Ryanair flight from Athens (Greece) to Vilnius (Lithuania) that had to make an emergency landing due to an alleged bomb threat.
Roman Protasevich was also pardoned by Lukashenka in mid-May, whom he thanked for this decision.