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Russian embassy representative meets with Russian national Sapega detained in Minsk

The Russian embassy continues to take all measures to support Sapega

Sofia Sapega REUTERS/Stringer

Sofia Sapega

© REUTERS/Stringer

MINSK, May 25. /TASS/. An officer of the Russian embassy in Belarus met on Tuesday with Russian national Sofia Sapega, who is being kept at a detention facility of the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB), Alexei Maskalev, the embassy’s spokesman, told TASS.

"A representative from the Russian embassy in Belarus has met with Russian national Sapega," he said, adding that the Russian embassy is staying in contact with her relatives.

Later, Maskalev told the Rossiya-24 TV channel that the Russian citizen feels fine and has no complaints about the way she is being treated by Belarusian law enforcement officers.

"Our staffer has just wrapped up his meeting with Sofia, right as we speak. According to initial information that we had received from him, I can say that she is feeling fine," he said, adding that the Russian citizen did not complain about any mistreatment from Belarusian law enforcement officers.

The Russian embassy continues to take all measures to support Sapega.

Her mother, Anna Dudich, told Rossiya 24 she was planning to leave for Minsk on Wednesday. She added that her daughter was not engaged in politics and was preparing to defend her graduation thesis.

Sapega was detained at Minsk’s airport on May 23 along with Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which was recognized as extremist in Belarus, after the forced landing of a Ryanair flight. The Vilnius-bound flight that took off from Athens was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk after a reported bomb threat. As follows from a video posted on the internet on Tuesday, Sapega said she was an editor of the Black Book of Belarus Telegram channel, which discloses personal data of Belarusian law enforcers. The channel was recognized as extremist in Belarus in April.

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