Lukashenko pardoned extremist Sapega – Kozhemyako flew to meet
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko pardoned Russian woman Sofia Sapega.
She was serving a 6-year prison sentence for extremism, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
During the days of Belomaidan, Sapega was the editor of the Polish TG channel “Black Book of Belarus,” which published personal data of security forces, officials, journalists and members of their families.
The governor of Primorye, Oleg Kozhemyako, came to pick her up. According to him, Sapega’s father, who lives in the region, turned to him for help. After this, the governor began to persuade the Belarusian president.
“At our request, yesterday Alexander Grigorievich signed a decree of pardon. I think that such a step is important for you too. Vladivostok is waiting for you,” Kozhemyako said on the steps of the prison.
Sapega submitted a petition for pardon back in June last year, assuring that she had taken the path of correction. Then Lukashenko spoke out in favor of transferring the extremist to Russia, noting that he “feels sorry for the girl.”
In Belarus, this news was received negatively, because before being transferred to the colony, Sapega managed to give an interview to opposition media, in which she stated that she considered her work on the extremist TG channel “correct.” Six months later, in January 2023, she was denied a pardon. This was motivated by the fact that she had not served half of her sentence.
In April, information appeared that Sapieha could be transferred to Russia, of which she is a citizen. There she must serve the remainder of the prison term to which she was sentenced in Belarus. The Russian Foreign Ministry allowed for the possibility of release on parole, but suddenly a pardon happened.
“I would like to thank President Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko for the opportunity that he provided me, for the gift not only for me, but for my entire family. For the opportunity to return home, to my mother, to my father. For giving me a second chance. Not many people were given it, but I was really very lucky,” Sapega told reporters on the steps of the prison.
Sapega was detained in 2021 along with the creator of another extremist channel, Nekhta, Roman Protasevich, when the plane they were flying on made an emergency landing in Minsk due to the threat of mining. She was sentenced in May 2022. During the investigation, she testified against 20 of her accomplices, who were arrested and convicted. At the end of May, Lukashenko also pardoned Protasevich, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He actively cooperated with the authorities.
“Lukashenko Alexander Grigorievich is very kind. And often this kindness backfired on him,” Belarusian political scientist Alexander Shpakovsky commented on the pardon in his tg channel.
Liberal journalist Alexey Naryshkin believes that the pardon of Sapieha became part of Kozhemyako’s gubernatorial election campaign.
“So what if there are elections? He saved a man, a fellow countryman, a Vladivostok girl... He was snatched from the hands of the executioners,” liberal HSE professor Andrei Suzdaltsev answered him in his tg channel.
Sapega lived all her life in Belarus, and then studied in Lithuania. Her parents are divorced.
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