The judge of the Presnensky District Court of Moscow, Alexandra Avdotyina, decided to transfer to Smolensk the consideration of the petition of the defense of Sofya Sapieha to transfer her from Belarus to Russia to serve her sentence. This is reported by the correspondent of «Mediazona» from the courtroom.
The girl's case will be considered by the Industrial District Court of Smolensk. Initially, Sapieha's lawyers asked to move the trial to Vladivostok, but from the certificate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs they learned that since October 2012 she has been registered in Smolensk.
Sofya Sapega was detained at the Minsk airport along with her boyfriend, former editor-in-chief of the Nexta telegram channel Roman Protasevich in May 2021. The couple flew from Athens to Vilnius, but the plane made an emergency landing in Belarus after a false report of a bomb on board. The girl was accused of administering the Black Book of Belarus telegram channel, which published the personal data of the security forces. After the arrest, Sapega and Protasevich were sent to a pre-trial detention center, but soon their preventive measure was changed to house arrest.
Six months later, Sapieha was finally charged with seven articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus: incitement of enmity and discord; organization of violence and threats of violence to a police officer; impact on an internal affairs officer in order to change the nature of his legal activities; organizing a threat of violence to an official; threats of murder, violence, damage to property to the judge; organization of obstruction of the professional activities of a journalist; illegal collection and dissemination of information about private life.
As a result, the girl entered into a pre-trial agreement with the investigation. A year ago, a court in Grodno sentenced her to six years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and discord (Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code of Belarus) and illegal collection of information about private life (Part 1 of Article 179 of the Criminal Code of Belarus).
In January 2023, it became known that Sapieha was denied pardon. After that, the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus granted Sapieha's request to be transferred to Russia to serve his sentence.
In May, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Roman Protasevich to eight years in prison, finding him guilty of organizing mass riots, public calls for terrorism, and leadership of an extremist group and on other matters. On May 22, it became known that he was pardoned.