Belarusian opposition blogger Roman Protasevich, arrested in 2021 after the Ryanair flight he was on was forced to land in Minsk, was pardoned on Monday, the official BelTA news agency reported, Reuters reported.

“I just signed the relevant documents that I was pardoned. This is, of course, good news,” Protasevich told the press, reports BelTA.

This month, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for crimes such as inciting terrorism, organizing mass riots and defaming Belarusian President Oleksandr Lukashenka.

Protasiewicz worked as a journalist for the Nexta news website, which widely reported on mass protests against Lukashenka in 2020 following a presidential election that the opposition and Western governments called rigged.

After the campaign of repression around the elections, the main figures of the opposition were either imprisoned or fled into exile.

Nexta founder Stepan Putsila and former publisher Jan Rudik were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively, by the same court. Last year, the Belarusian authorities recognized Nexta as a “terrorist organization.”

The circumstances of Protasevich’s arrest in May 2021 caused a reaction of condemnation at the international level and forced the European Union to apply sanctions against Lukashenka.

After the arrest, public television showed Protasevich tearfully confessing to his involvement in the anti-government protests and the plan to overthrow Lukashenka.

The Belarusian opposition in exile said that the confessions were false and obtained under pressure. (Agerpress)