Roman Protasevich, a journalist and one of the founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, was pardoned in Belarus. Prior to that, the Lukashenka regime sentenced him to eight years in a penal colony.
This was reported by the Belarusian propaganda publication "Belta".
It is stated that allegedly Protasevich himself informed the pro-government mass media about this.
"I literally just signed all the relevant documents that I am pardoned. This, of course, is just great news," Belta quoted him as saying.
Roman Protasevich is the former editor-in-chief of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta. The journalist and his then-girlfriend Sofya Sapega were detained in May 2021 at the Minsk airport.
To do this, the Lukashenka regime ordered the emergency landing of the Ryanair plane, which was flying from Athens to Vilnius. After that, a number of sanctions were imposed against the self-proclaimed president Oleksandr Lukashenka.
In Belarus, Protasevich himself was sentenced by a court to eight years in a prison under a strict regime in the case of an alleged "conspiracy to seize power." However, he later refused to criticize the Lukashenko regime. Instead, Sofia Sapega received 6 years in prison.
