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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Daniel Keane

Sofia Sapega: Belarus jails girlfriend of dissident blogger seized after forced Ryanair plane landing

Sofia Sapega Ryanair Belarus Alexander Lukashenko Dmitry Peskov Roman Protasevich Prison

Student Sofia Sapega poses for a picture in Gothenburg

(Picture: REUTERS)

A Belarusian court has sentenced Sofia Sapega, the girlfriend of a dissident detained on a Ryanair flight, to six years in prison for “inciting social hatred”.

The 24-year-old Russian citizen was with her boyfriend Roman Protasevich, a critic of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, on a flight from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 when it was diverted to Minsk by Belarusian authorities.

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