Sofia Sapega: Russian woman captured by Belarus on Ryanair flight pleads for freedom
Eusebio R. Sheffield
3 min read
A student captured by Belarus when he rammed a civilian airliner last year in what Western countries have called an act of state piracy has released a letter from prison confessing to illegal actions and pleading for clemency .
Sofia Sapega, 24, a Russian citizen living in Lithuania, was arrested along with her then-boyfriend, exiled Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, when their Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land in Minsk in May last year.
After his dramatic arrest in 2021, Roman Protasevich was charged with organizing mass unrest and for which he could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. He ran a messaging channel that was heavily used during the massive 2020 protests against hardline Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The incident was condemned by countries around the world, with the exception of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s main ally, Russia. Following this extraordinary incident, European countries banned passenger air transport over Belarus.
Belarus later found Ms Sapega guilty of “incitement to social hatred” and sentenced her to six years in prison.
Sofia Sapega and Roman Protasevich have been removed from a Ryanair flight
(Telegram Channel Zheltye Slivy/AFP/Getty)
Mr Protasevich, a former editor of a major opposition media outlet, renounced his political activism and was released from prison and placed under house arrest. The opposition in Belarus believe his retraction was forced. It was recently reported that he married another woman.
In her letter, which was published by the Russian news site RBC and whose authenticity her lawyer confirmed, Ms Sapega said she understood the “illegality” of her actions and asked Mr Lukashenko to commute his sentence.
“Today I understand that I was unfair and looked at things from one side only,” Ms Sapega wrote. “I want to emphasize that in Lithuania, before my arrest, I wanted to stop my illegal actions because I already did not agree with them.”
Last year, Ms Sapega’s father, Andrei, appealed to President Lukashenko, calling him a “father to father”.
Russia Prima Media The news agency said it recorded the call at its offices in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East. “Alexander Grigorievich, I beg your pardon. Enough cruelty, the world is overflowing with it lately. Any sane person understands that Sofia was in the wrong place and with the wrong person,” he said.
Mrs Sapega’s father appealed to President Lukashenko
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“Maybe I can convince [Mr Lukashenko] forgive my daughter. Don’t waste her life, she’s just a little girl just beginning to live,” he said.
Mr Lukashenko has been ostracized by the West since an election in 2020 which the opposition say was stolen. With financial and security support from Russia, he violently suppressed the demonstrations, and all the main opposition figures are now imprisoned or in exile.
In recent months, it has allowed Belarus to be used as a staging point for the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and as a launch site for Russian missile strikes, although Belarusian troops have not openly taken go to war.
