The Kremlin expressed gratitude to Belarus for pardoning Sapieha

Russia is grateful to Belarus for the decision to pardon Russian Sofya Sapega, who was sentenced in Belarus to six years in prison for illegally disseminating information about the private life of another person. This was announced by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.

“Of course, we are grateful to our Belarusian friends for the decision. Such decisions, of course, are wholly and completely in unison with our fraternal, friendly and allied nature of relations,” he said.

On the eve of June 7, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko pardoned Sapieha. She, in turn, thanked Lukashenka for his decision and for “the opportunity he <...> granted, for that gift not only for me, but for my whole family, for the opportunity to return home. “For giving me a second chance,” she added.

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 (RUB 5.4 million at the current exchange rate) 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. Earlier during the investigation, Sapega admitted to editing the Telegram channel, where the personal data of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus were published.

In the summer of 2022, Sapieha filed a petition for pardon in the name of Lukashenko, but was refused. Later, the administration of the President of Belarus explained this by the fact that the criteria for such a decision were not enough. In particular, Sapieha has not yet served “at least half of the term.”

On April 12, it became known that the convicted Russian woman agreed for extradition to Russia for possible further punishment. On April 14, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus gave preliminary consent to Sapieha’s extradition to Russia. On April 24, Russian Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko noted that the final decision on the extradition of Sapieha would be made by Belarus after the court in Russia makes a decision on this issue and sends it to the competent authority in Minsk. June 1 Presnensky Court of Moscow handed over consideration of the issue of the extradition of a Russian woman to Smolensk in connection with the last place of registration.