From Reuters:
“Journalist on Ryanair plane diverted by Belarus is jailed
for eight years”
(Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is
accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve,
arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus April 10, 2017.)
A Belarusian journalist who was arrested after being hauled
off a Ryanair plane that was forced to land in Minsk almost two years ago was
sentenced on Wednesday to eight years in jail on charges of conspiring against
the state. Roman Protasevich, 27, was found guilty of a range of offences
including organising mass disturbances, inciting acts of terrorism and
slandering President Alexander Lukashenko, the Belta state news agency said. He
had worked as a journalist at the news outlet Nexta, which reported extensively
on mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020 following an election that the
opposition and Western governments denounced as rigged. Nexta's founder
Stsiapan Putsila and former editor Yan Rudik were sentenced in absentia by the
same court to 20 and 19 years respectively. Belarus declared Nexta a
"terrorist organisation" last year.
The circumstances of Protasevich's arrest in May 2021
prompted international outrage and triggered European Union sanctions against
Lukashenko. He had been flying from Greece to Lithuania when Belarusian air
traffic control diverted the flight to Minsk on the false pretext of a bomb
threat. He was arrested and detained along with his Russian then-partner, Sofia
Sapega, who was sentenced to six years and is now set to be transferred to
serve her term in Russia. Prosecutors had accused the three defendants of at
least 1,586 crimes, including "conspiracy to seize state power", calling
for sanctions against Belarus and "creating or leading an extremist
group". Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called the trial
"fake". She noted that the verdicts were issued on World Press
Freedom Day, tweeting that Protasevich had been "the regime's hostage
since the Ryanair hijacking". After his arrest, Protasevich was shown on
state television tearfully confessing on state television to involvement in
anti-government protests and plotting to topple Lukashenko. The exiled Belarus
opposition said the admissions were false and had been coerced. Video from
state media showed him declining to answer questions from journalists in court
about whether he would appeal.
^ This was a Show Trial. ^
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