Status: 06/27/2022 12:42 p.m
The prominent government critic Sapega has sent a plea for clemency to Belarus’ ruler Lukashenko. There are doubts about the authenticity – as was the case with videos of the opposition leader Protasevich, who was arrested with her.
After a year in prison, prominent government critic Sofia Sapega has apparently asked Belarus’ ruler Alexander Lukashenko for a pardon. The 24-year-old was arrested in May last year when a passenger plane was forced to land in Minsk – together with her then partner Roman Protassevich.
According to a report by the BBC’s Russian-language service, Sapega writes in the petition for clemency that her opposition activities were due to “youth and stupidity”. In the meantime, she has “completely understood illegality and illegitimacy”. It remained unclear under what conditions the letter was written in detention.
tearful confession
There were also doubts about the history of the event in an interview with Protasevich that was broadcast on Belarusian state television last summer. The parents of the detained regime critic expressed their belief that the video was taken under duress. In the 90-minute video, Protasevich tearfully admits to having organized mass protests against Lukashenko without permission. Sapega had also confessed to the allegations against her.
The native Russian was sentenced to six years in prison by the judiciary of the authoritarian country in May because, like Protasevich, she ran an oppositional channel on the Telegram messenger service. In 2021, both were on a flight from Athens to Vilnius, which was forced to land over Belarusian territory because of an alleged bomb threat. The case caused international consternation, and the EU imposed an airspace ban on Belarus.
Lukashenko had himself elected president for the sixth time in the summer of 2020, which is not internationally recognized due to suspected manipulation. Nationwide protests were put down.