Sophia Sapega’s father, a citizen of the Russian Federation sentenced in Belarus, Andrey Sapega, paid the fine imposed on her by the court in the amount of 175 thousand Belarusian rubles (about 4 million Russian Federation rubles or 67 thousand euros), reports in Monday, July 25, BBC Russian Service, quoting Anton Sapieha’s family lawyer Gashinsky.

According to the lawyer, after the payment of the fine, a formal opportunity arises both for the pardon of Sapieha and for her transfer to Russia – the payment of the debt was a fundamental condition for this.

Sofya Sapega’s verdict

Earlier, in May, a court in Grodno sentenced Russian citizen Sofya Sapega to six years in a penal colony on charges of inciting social hatred. In addition, she received a fine, which was to be levied in favor of the injured Belarusian security forces and officials who allegedly suffered from her actions – more than 70 people in total.

A student at the European University of Humanities in Vilnius, Sapieha was detained in May 2021 along with Roman Protasevich, former editor of the Belarusian opposition telegram channel Nexta, after a Ryanair flight was forced to land in Minsk. She was 22 years old when she was arrested.

Belarus state television later distributed a video in which Sofya Sapega says she was the editor of the Telegram channel, which published the personal data of security officials, judges, officials and state media journalists. In June 2022, Sapieha asked for forgiveness.