The Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office accepted the request for the transfer of Sofia Sapega, who was convicted in the case of organizing an uprising in the republic, to Russia. Reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the press service of the department.
The supervisory authority explained that “all the damage caused by the illegal actions of Sofia Sapieha has been compensated”. The Prosecutor General’s Office noted that they saw no obstacles to Sapieha’s return to Russia, where she will continue to serve her sentence. The corresponding approval has already been sent to the Ministry of Justice of Russia.
After Minsk receives a guarantee from the service that the Belarusian court’s sentence will be executed, Sapega will be handed over to representatives of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service. Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, said that after Sapieha’s arrival in Russia, she will be taken to Moscow, where she will likely be placed in SIZO-6 in Pechatniki.
“The first thing they will do is call it SIZO No. Will put it at 6. This is a women’s detention center, the only prison in Moscow. He will stay here for a while and his fate will be determined.”
Merkacheva noted that Sapieha has the right to review her case, as the Russian Criminal Code is different from that of Belarus. Specifically, a Russian woman may seek pardon or parole.
“He can be released for one of three reasons. The first may be a presidential pardon, for which absolutely nothing is needed. The second point is parole. For this, the period of serving the sentence will be recalculated and the conditions in which he was in the Belarusian colony will be compared with ours. The third moment is when they can review the sentence imposed on him by the Belarusian court. In this case, he may be released because our court may consider that the qualifications under Russian criminal law may be different,” he said.
HRC relies on the third option. The human rights activist added that the Belarusian justice system is tougher than in Russia, so it was possible for Sapieha to be released long before her parole period.
According to Mash, after the SIZO-6 of the capital, Sapega will be transferred to the IK-5 colony in Mozhaisk, near Moscow. There he will be able to work in the local clothing industry.
Sophia Sapega, 25, was detained after a Ryanair plane made a resonant forced landing in Minsk in May 2021. He flew to Vilnius from Greece with his young man, the former editor-in-chief of the opposition Nexta Telegram channel (known as a terrorist organization in Belarus). Sapega and Protasevic were taken into custody after the plane landed.
Protasevic was previously included on the terrorist list, accused of organizing mass uprisings, plotting to seize power, inciting hatred, and also leading an extremist formation. The criminal case against him continues in Belarus.
Sapieha was accused of inciting public hatred and illegally collecting and disseminating private life data. The Belarus investigation concluded that he runs the Belarusian Black Book Telegram channel, which is known as an extremist, which publishes personal data of security guards who used force against protesters who swept the country after the 2020 presidential election.
In the summer of 2021, the Belarusian Investigative Committee reported that Sapega and Protasevich concluded an agreement on the investigation, which led to a change in the preventive measure – they were released under house arrest. On May 6, 2022, the Grodno District Court found Sapega guilty and sentenced him to 6 years in prison. In addition, the Russian woman was ordered to compensate the moral damage to the victims in an amount of more than 167.5 thousand Belarusian rubles (more than 5 million Russian rubles at the current exchange rate).
Sapieha served her sentence at IK-4 in Gomel. In June last year, lawyer Anton Gashinsky said that he had petitioned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for pardon. In January of this year, it became known that the head of state refused to pardon. In Minsk, they announced that Sapieha did not meet a number of conditions for early release.
“The President had the right to pardon in this case as well. But if we consider all the criteria as a whole, then in this case there were no exceptions that would serve as the basis for the head of state to make such a decision.
On April 3, Gashinsky announced that the procedure for the transfer of Sapieha to Russia was started. This week, the Russian embassy in Belarus reported that it has accepted Sapieha’s transfer. Gashinsky later told Caution Media that the return procedure had begun quite a long time ago, but that was not addressed.
“At first there were doubts about whether he wanted to transfer to Russia, because there is uncertainty in Russia, there is already some certainty and a well-formed lifestyle in Belarus. But a lawyer went to his colony, discussed all the pros and cons and came to the conclusion that yes, he should be transferred to the Russian Federation.
After that, Sapieha’s family sent petitions to the Russian Ministry of Justice to transfer the detainee to Russia. The department satisfied them and requested a translation from Minsk. After returning to his homeland, the Russian court will have to re-examine his case and decide what punishment he deserves in the Russian Federation.
“It will already determine whether this act will be punished on the territory of the Russian Federation, respectively, which article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is similar to the one in which Sophia was convicted, and what is the deadline for separation. Sanction of Part 3 of Art., from 6 to 12 years in Belarus. 130 was assigned to him at least. In Russia there is an analogue of the article – this is Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, the sanction is up to 6 years. In other words, there is such an assumption that the Russian court can decide that he should serve 6 years in Russia and approve the transfer. The time spent in Belarus and, accordingly, the period of detention and house arrest will be taken into account.” At the same time, he stressed that the Russian court would not determine Sapieha’s guilt.