MINSK, May 22. /TASS/. Roman Protasevich, a member of the Nexta terrorist organization, said on Monday that he was pardoned by a May 16 decree signed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"The president signed the relevant decree back on May 16. I am awfully thankful to the country and, naturally, to the president for this decision. I hope things will only get better in the future," he told journalists. The corresponding video was posted on the Telegram channel of the Minsk-Novosti agency.

On May 3, the Minsk Region Court sentenced Protasevich to eight years in a maximum-security penal colony. The court ruled to put him under house arrest until the verdict came into effect.

Protasevich’s defense lawyers did not challenge the verdict and it came into force on May 18.

On the same day, the court sentenced in absentia Nexta members Stepan Putilo and Yan Rudik to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively.

Protasevich was detained in Minsk, along with Russian national Sofia Sapega, on May 23, 2021, after a Vilnius-bound Ryanair flight from Athens had been forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport due to a reported bomb threat, which later turned out to be a hoax. The two were charged with, among other things, organizing activities that violated public order and inciting social hatred.