Pratasevich’s companion Sofia Sapega to remain under arrest for another three months
Russian citizen Sofia Sapega’s being in custody has been extended for three months, until December 25, her mother Galina Dudich told Deutsche Welle.
In late June, Sofia Sapega and Raman Pratasevich were placed under house arrest. The detainees are allegedly being held in a rented apartment.
On May 23, a Ryanair’s Boeing 737-8AS flying over Belarus was forced to land in Minsk by the local authorities claiming that they got the information about a bomb planted onboard. Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka personally gave the order; to ‘escort’ the passenger carrier, a MiG-29 fighter was scrambled. It should be noted that the plane was not far from the Belarusian-Lithuanian air border at that moment; it was at a distance of 90 km from Vilnius and about 200 km – from Minsk. Emigre journalist Raman Pratasevich and his companion Sofia Sapega, were arrested by security services in the Belarusian capital city. The operation of forcibly landing the Ryanair airplane seems to have been deliberately planned and performed by pro-Lukashenka secret services.
In response, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary slammed Belarusian officials, labelling the steps taken by them as ‘state-sponsored hijacking’. The outrageous incident has triggered a mighty international row. Politicians, diplomats, international organisations denounced the actions of the Lukashenka regime.
In the wake of the controversial situation, the Council of the European Union decided to strengthen the existing restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus by introducing a ban on the overflight of EU airspace and on access to EU airports by Belarusian carriers of all kinds.
On June 24, the European Union imposed targeted sanctions on a number of pillars of the Belarusian economy in order to respond, among other things, to the forced landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk and the related detention of Pratasevich an Sapega. Three days earlier, the EU approved the fourth package of personal sanctions against the Belarusian regime. The bloc froze assets and imposed visa bans on 78 Belarusian officials (including members of Lukashenka’s family) and 8 companies; a total of 166 persons and 15 entities are currently subject to restrictive measures.
belsat.eu
