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Crisis in Belarus

Russian national held in Belarus to be charged on May 31, lawyer says

Ealier, Minsk’s Partizansky District Court rejected the complaint in question against the Russian citizen’s detention

MINSK, May 31. /TASS/. Charges against Russian national Sofia Sapega taken into custody in Belarus will be handed down on Monday, attorney Alexander Filanovich told TASS.

"This afternoon, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus will bring charges against her," the lawyer stated. According to him, on May 31, an appeal challenging Sapega’s detention will also be reviewed for the second time. Earlier, the defense petitioned against the court’s refusal to satisfy this complaint.

On May 28, Minsk’s Partizansky District Court, in a closed session, rejected the complaint in question against the Russian citizen’s detention.

On May 23, Sapega was apprehended at Minsk International Airport together with Roman Protasevich, one of the co-founders of the Nexta Telegram channel, which Minsk deems to be an extremist entity, after an emergency landing of a Ryanair flight. In a video uploaded to the Internet several days later, Sapega admitted that she served as an editor of the Black Book of Belarus Telegram channel, which doxed Belarusian police officers. In April, this Telegram channel was declared to be an extremist entity by Gomel’s Zheleznodorozhny District Court.

On May 30, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper said that a Belarusian court would decide Sapega’s fate once the investigation of her case is completed.

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