The embassy reported on the work on the case of Sophia Sapega, convicted in Belarus

The Russian Embassy in Belarus reported that Russian diplomats are working on the case of a Russian woman convicted in the republic, Sofia Sapega, who was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2021. About this TASS informs with reference to the press secretary of the embassy in Minsk Aleksey Maskalev.

“Russian diplomats are working on the Sapieha case, interacting with the lawyer and the Belarusian side. We look forward to another meeting with a citizen of the Russian Federation,” said Maskalev.

In the middle of March in the KGB of Belarus reported on the inclusion of Sapieha in the list of persons involved in terrorism. The department explained that the reason for this was the entry into force of the court verdict on the recognition of her guilty “of committing crimes under Art. 130 of the Criminal Code”.

At the end of January, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Russia’s efforts to release Sapieha, convicted in Belarus, were not enough, since we are talking about a sovereign state. The Kremlin added that Moscow will continue enforce her rights.

In the summer of 2022, the lawyer of the Russian woman, Anton Gashinsky, said that she had filed a petition for pardon in the name of the President of the Republic, Alexander Lukashenko, and sent a document to the administration of the colony in Gomel. On January 10, it became known that Sapieha’s pardon was denied.

Sofia Sapega was detained along with the former editor-in-chief of the NEXTA Telegram channel (recognized as extremist and terrorist in Belarus) Roman Protasevich in May 2021, when the Belarusian authorities forced the plane carrying young people to land at the Minsk airport.

On May 6, 2022, the Grodno Regional Court sentenced Sapega to 6 years in a penal colony and ordered her to pay 167,500 Belarusian rubles in compensation for non-pecuniary damage to the victims. She was found guilty of illegally collecting and disseminating information about the private life of another person without his consent, which caused harm to the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the victims.