Journalist and activist Roman Pratasevich has been sentenced to eight years in prison in Belarus. As the state news agency Belta reported on Wednesday, the Minsk regional court sentenced the former editor-in-chief of the Telegram channel Nexta to eight years in a penal colony. In April, the public prosecutor's office had demanded ten years in prison under aggravated conditions.
Othmara Glass
Editor in politics
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According to Belta, the 27-year-old Pratasevich was found guilty, among other things, of organizing mass riots, publicly calling for terrorist acts and creating an extremist association. Two other defendants in the case, Nexta founder Stepan Putilo and former editor Jan Rudik, were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively.
Plane was forced to land
The spectacular arrest of Pratasevich in May 2021 had caused outrage far beyond Belarus. Together with his girlfriend at the time, Sofia Sapega, he was on a flight from Athens to Vilnius when the Ryanair plane was forced to land in Minsk by the Belarusian authorities because of 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.
Nexta is one of the most famous Belarusian opposition media. During the protests against President Alexandr Lukashenko in August 2020, social media channels reached millions of people. The Belarusian authorities banned Nexta, and the Supreme Court classified the media as a "terrorist organization".
After his arrest, Pratasevich stated that he was cooperating in the investigation against him "to atone for the damage" that had been "done to the country." He appeared several times on Belarusian state television, distancing himself from his opposition activities. His parents, who live in exile in Poland, warned against believing possible confessions. They had found traces of abuse during demonstrations of the young man.