The Minsk Regional Court has sentenced the former editor-in-chief of the opposition Telegram channel “Nexta” Roman Protasevich to eight years in prison. The journalist was arrested after a plane was forced to land in 2021.
According to investigators, since 2020, the 27-year-old blogger has been pursuing the “general plan of a conspiracy to unconstitutionally seize power in Belarus,” according to the Belarusian state news agency “Belta”, citing his courtroom correspondent of Minsk. Therefore, he published information material “with destructive content” through the largest Russian-language Telegram channel “Nexta”.
“Nexta” opposes the authoritarian-dictatorial regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Around the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus, the Warsaw-based media project acted as one of the main information and coordination channels of the Belarusian protest movement and remains the largest Telegram channel on the political situation in Belarus.
Boeing escorted to Minsk by fighter jet
Internationally, Protasevich, who used to be editor-in-chief of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, is considered a political prisoner in authoritarian Belarus. Protasevich’s spectacular arrest in May 2021 sparked outrage far beyond Belarus.
He was on a flight from Athens to Vilnius with his then-girlfriend Sofia Sapega when Belarusian authorities forced the Ryanair plane to land in Minsk over an alleged bomb threat. Subsequently, both he and Sapega were imprisoned. Sapega, who is a Russian citizen, was later sentenced to six years in prison.
After his arrest, Protasevich made several appearances on Belarusian state television, distancing himself from his opposition activities. However, relatives assume that he made his statements under pressure and torture.
Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been known, at least since the suppression of anti-government protests in the summer of 2020, to crack down on opposition in his country with extreme harshness.
Source: Krone
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