Belarusian blogger Roman Protasevich arrested on Ryanair flight pardoned
R
oman Protasevich, the Belarusian opposition blogger arrested in 2021 after his Ryanair flight was pressured to land in Minsk, was pardoned on Monday, the Belarusian state news company BelTA reported.
“I have literally just signed all the relevant documents stating that I have been pardoned,” BelTA quoted Protasevich as telling reporters. “This is, of course, great news.”
Protasevich had been sentenced to eight years in prison this month for offences together with inciting terrorism, organising mass disturbances and slandering Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
He had labored as a journalist on the news outlet Nexta, which reported extensively on mass protests in opposition to Lukashenko in 2020 following a presidential election that the opposition and Western governments denounced as rigged.
A clampdown across the time of the election resulted in all important opposition figures being jailed or pushed into exile.
Nexta’s founder Stsiapan Putsila and former editor Yan Rudik had been sentenced in absentia by the identical court docket to twenty and 19 years in jail respectively. Belarus declared Nexta a “terrorist organisation” final 12 months.
The circumstances of Protasevich’s arrest in May 2021 prompted worldwide outrage and triggered European Union sanctions in opposition to Lukashenko.
After his arrest, Protasevich was proven on state tv tearfully confessing to involvement in anti-government protests and plotting to topple Lukashenko. The exiled Belarus opposition stated the admissions had been false and had been coerced.