Belarus Ryanair plane arrest student Sofia Sapega jailed for six years

A court in Belarus has sentenced a Russian student to six years in jail, one year after she and her dissident journalist partner were removed from a Ryanair plane and arrested.

Sofia Sapega was travelling with Roman Protasevich to Lithuania when their flight was forcibly diverted to Minsk.

The case sparked worldwide condemnation and fresh sanctions against the government of Alexander Lukashenko.

The court said she was guilty of inciting social enmity and discord.

She was also found guilty of illegally collecting and disseminating information about the private life of an unnamed person without his consent.

The authorities in Belarus had previously accused her of organising riots.

Mr Protasevich was editor of the Nexta Telegram channel, based in Poland, which published videos and information from the wave of giant street protests against President Lukashenko that began in the summer of 2020.

The mass protests were prompted by anger after Mr Lukashenko secured a sixth term in office in what the opposition said was a rigged presidential election.

Mr Lukashenko denied that the election was fixed and cracked down on the opposition, whose leading members were either jailed or forced to flee the country.

Mr Protasevich himself fled Belarus in 2019 and had known Ms Sapega for about six months at the time of their arrest.

He is still to go on trial and the status of the investigation against him is not clear.

The opposition activist was among the "most wanted" people in Belarus. But the move in May 2021 to declare a bomb threat on board his flight across Europe shocked the world.

Western countries accused Belarus of hijacking the plane after a Mig fighter jet forced it to change its course and land in Minsk.

Before their arrest, Ms Sapega had travelled with Mr Protesavich to Athens, where he attended an economic forum in mid-May.