Prosecutor General’s Office greenlights Sofya Sapega’s extradition to Russia

April 14, BPN. The Prosecutor General’s Office has granted Sofya Sapega’s petition to be extradited to serve her six-year sentence in Russia, RIA Novosti reports.

“The damage caused by Sofya Sapega’s illegal actions has been fully compensated,” the news agency quoted the prosecutors’ press office as saying.

Sapega, an alleged former administrator of a Belarusian opposition media in the Telegram messenger application, would reportedly be handed over to Russia when Belarus receives guarantees that the Belarusian court’s ruling is to be enforced.

On April 10, the Russian consul visited Sapega in prison and received her formal consent to the extradition.

In May 2021, Belarus forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk in order to, as human rights activists said, arrest opposition journalist Raman Pratasievič, traveling from Athens to Vilnius with his then-friend Sapega.

In May 2022 the Hrodna Regional Court found Sapega guilty of incitement to hatred and illegal handling of personal data.

In March 2023 the Belarusian Committee for State Security (KGB) put the woman on the list of people it said were involved in terrorism.