The Belarusian authorities have officially pardoned the former editor-in-chief of the Nexta Telegram channel, Roman Protasevich. On May 3, the opposition journalist was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of attempting to seize power through unconstitutional means.
Protasevich told journalists on Monday that he had already completed all the paperwork securing his release and that his pardon had been signed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on May 16. “Literally, I just signed all the relevant documents that I was pardoned. This, of course, is just great news," he said.
Protasevich was initially arrested on May 23, 2021, amid a wave of violent anti-government protests that rocked Belarus in 2020 and 2021. The journalist was detained on board a Ryanair flight en route from Greece to Lithuania that was forced to land in Minsk due to an alleged bomb threat.
As the editor-in-chief of the ‘Nexta’ and ‘Belarus of the Brain’ Telegram channels, which were declared extremist organizations by the Belarusian authorities, Protasevich was tried for organizing mass riots and making public calls to seize power, commit acts of terrorism, and other actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus.
In April, in his final remarks before sentencing, Protasevich asked the court presiding over his case for "a fair punishment without deprivation of freedom."
On May 3, a court in Minsk gave the journalist an eight-year prison term, finding him guilty of all charges. The judge, however, took into consideration that Protasevich had cooperated with the investigation and also factored in the time he had already spent in pretrial detention under house arrest.
Protasevich’s girlfriend, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, who was on the flight with him, also received a six-year prison term in 2022 for running a Telegram channel that disclosed the personal data of Belarusian law enforcement officers amid the protests. Later this month, a Moscow court will rule on whether Sapega can be extradited to Russia to serve the rest of her sentence in her home country.
The unrest in Belarus began following a presidential vote in August 2020. The opposition claimed that the elections were rigged by long-time President Alexander Lukashenko, prompting the US and EU to slap sanctions on Minsk over alleged election fraud and for cracking down on the protestors.
The demonstrations eventually died down, with many activists being either detained or fleeing abroad. Minsk insisted that the uprising was funded by the West in an attempt to seize power in the country and started going after those it believed had helped organize the riots through Telegram channels such as Nexta.