Sofia Sapega, sentenced to 6 years in Belarus, consents to extradition to Russia
The Russian embassy in Belarus has announced that the 25-year-old Russian national Sofia Sapega, sentenced to six years by a Belarusian court, has consented to being extradited to Russia.
The Russian consul visited Sapega on Monday, April 10. According to the embassy’s press service, during their meeting, the former political activist agreed to be extradited and to serve the rest of her sentence in the Russian penal system.
Sapega was arrested in May 2021 alongside her partner, the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, after the Belarusian authorities forcibly diverted their Ryanair flight to Minsk. As an administrator of The Black Book of Belarus, a Telegram channel that published information about members of the Belarusian law enforcement, Sapega was tried for inciting discord and privacy infringement.
In June 2022, the activist apologized and asked the Belarusian president for clemency, expressing regret for her past work on The Black Book of Belarus. In January 2023, it emerged that Alexander Lukashenko had denied her request.
What happened?
On May 23, 2021, a Ryanair flight traveling from Athens to Vilnius was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk due to an alleged bomb threat (that later proved false). The plane was accompanied by a Belarusian MiG-29 military fighter jet. After the landing, two passengers were arrested: Belarusian opposition journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega. The plane later resumed its flight to Vilnius. The governments of a number of European countries consider the incident a hijacking intended to let the Belarusian authorities detain Protasevich.