According to the minister, the trial will most likely take place in Belarus. He noted that he cannot predict how the situation will develop further, since “there are different options.”
In particular, Makei does not exclude that with regard to Sapieha, “by the decision of the head of state, decisions may be made on both a pardon and transfer to Russia for serving further sentences.”
Context:
Sapega is a student at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. She is a citizen of Russia, but since childhood she lived in Belarus, where she has a residence permit.
She and Protasevich were detained on May 23. On this day, their plane, flying from Athens to Vilnius, made in Minsk on May 23 emergency landing allegedly due to a mining report (subsequently no explosives were found on board the vessel). “To escort” the plane on behalf of Lukashenka was raised fighter of the Belarusian Air Force.
A criminal case was opened against Sapieha under Part 3 of Art. 130 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (incitement to racial, national, religious or other social hostility or hatred), which provides for up to 12 years in prison… As “Novaya Gazeta” wrote, Sapega is also suspected of organizing riots., which entailed grave consequences (part 1 of article 293) and group actions that grossly violate public order (part 1 of article 342). The maximum punishment that Sapieha faces on these suspicions is imprisonment for up to 15 years.
May 25 Belarusian court arrested Sapega for two months… Belarusian human rights defenders recognized her as a political prisoneras well as Protasevich. The Kremlin admitted that Russia “de jure may raise the issue” of its transfer to the Russian Federation, said “Interfax”.
Sofia Sapieha’s parents stated that she was not involved in politics. The mother of the arrested woman, Anna Dudich, said “BBC Russian Service”that her daughter did not participate in the protests: on the day of the presidential elections on August 9, 2020, she was with her family at the dacha, and on August 11 or 12 she left Belarus for Lithuania.
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