President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree pardoning Russian citizen Sofia Sapieha. Governor of Primorsky Krai Oleg Kozhemyako wrote about this in his Telegram channel.
According to him, Sofya Sapega received “a unique chance to start life anew.” Kozhemyako specified that he appealed to Lukashenka with a request to pardon the Russian woman and the corresponding decree was signed immediately after their meeting.
Lukashenka “with paternal understanding” reacted to the requests of Sophia’s parents for indulgence, the head of the region said.
Recall that Russian Sofya Sapega was detained in Belarus at the end of May 2021, along with Roman Protasevich, the founder of the NEXTA Telegram channel recognized in the country as extremist and terrorist. They were on board a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius. The liner urgently landed in Minsk due to a report of mining, which was subsequently not confirmed.
A year later, the Grodno Regional Court sentenced the Russian woman to six years in a penal colony. She was found guilty under articles on inciting social hatred and illegal collection and dissemination of information about the private lives of law enforcers, judges, and officials, and was sentenced to six years in prison.
In June 2022, Sofya Sapega filed a petition for clemency, but was refused.
In April 2023, it became known that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus granted Sapieha’s request to transfer her to Russia to serve her sentence.
Source: Rosbalt
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