The Russian authorities "made all possible efforts" to promote the pardon of the Russian citizen Sofia Sapieha, who was convicted in Belarus, said the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov on January 31, BPN reports with reference to "Kommersant".

When asked why the efforts of the Russian authorities were not enough to help Sapeza get a pardon, he said:

"It turned out not to be enough, because we are talking about a sovereign state with its own laws.

All possible efforts were made.

We will continue to monitor how the rights of a Russian citizen are fulfilled."

Sapieha, as well as blogger and activist

, were detained on May 23, 2021 at the Minsk airport after the landing of the plane of the Irish airline Ryanair, which was flying from Athens to Vilnius, organized by the Belarusian authorities.

On May 6 of last year, the Grodno Regional Court sentenced Sapiega to 6 years in a general regime prison.

The girl was found guilty under Part 3 of Art.

130 (intentional actions aimed at inciting social enmity, enmity based on a different social affiliation, committed by a group of persons who suffered serious consequences) and Part 1 of Art.

179 (illegal collection and dissemination of information about private life, which constitute the personal and family secret of another person, without his consent, resulting in harm to the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the victims) of the Criminal Code.

The citizen of the Russian Federation and her defense did not appeal the sentence, but sent a request for clemency to Lukashenka.

On June 3,

stated that he considers it possible to transfer Sapiega to Russia: "It's a pity for the girl.

We need to solve this issue.

She is Russian... We have practice.

We can transfer a Russian citizen to Russia.

Let her serve her term there.

Or they do what they want there.

I think science is great for her."

This year, on January 10, it became known that Sapeza was denied a pardon.

On January 31, the deputy head of the administration of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the chairwoman of the Commission on pardons under the president, Olga Chupris, said that Sapeza was denied a pardon "on legal grounds."

"Refused is completely legal.

In order for the act of pardon to take place, it is necessary that a number of conditions be fulfilled.

She has the right to apply, just like any other citizen of the Republic of Belarus and foreigners.

There are no exceptions or any prejudice.

Because a lot of people actually apply, - said

.

- In particular, the convicted woman, who expressed her desire to write such a petition in the name of the president, did not serve even at least half of the term, although she had the right to appeal.

The president had the right to pardon in this case as well.

But if we evaluate all the criteria as a whole, then in this case there were no exceptions that would serve as a reason for the head of state to make such a decision."

The incident with the Ryanair plane, the detention of the blogger Protasevich and the reaction in the world

• On May 23, approximately after 14:00 Belarusian time, the press service of the Minsk airport announced the emergency landing of the Ryanair plane, which was traveling on the Athens-Vilnius route.

• According to FlightRadar, the plane flew over almost the entire territory of the western part of Belarus and turned towards Minsk near the border with Lithuania.

• According to the information of the press service of the airport, the pilots reported about the mine.

  The plane landed successfully.

  The Investigative Committee of Belarus opened a criminal case for knowingly false notification of danger.

• The operator of international airports of Lithuania reported that the plane made an emergency landing due to a conflict between a passenger and one of the crew members.

• Later, Ryanair stated that it received an order to land the liner in Minsk from Belarusian dispatchers.

  The press service of the Minsk National Airport confirmed that Belaeronavigation reported about the threat on board the Ryanair crew.

• At the order of

  Alexander Lukashenko,

  a MiG-29 military fighter jet was taken to the sky to escort the plane.

  Later, the chief foreign policy advisor of the President of Lithuania reported that the Belarusian authorities also raised the Mi-24 helicopter.

• Minsk airport reported that there were 123 passengers on board.

  Later it became known that there were several more passengers who, after the emergency landing, remained in Belarus and did not fly on to Vilnius.

• Among the passengers of the plane was a blogger, author of the telegram channel "Belarus hemohomogoza" and former editor-in-chief of the Nexta channels,

  Raman Pratasevich

  , who was included in the "terrorist list" by the Belarusian authorities for "organizing mass riots."

• Protasevich, who wrote about the alleged surveillance of him at the Athens airport, was detained in Minsk.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania summoned the temporary representative of Belarus in Lithuania.

  Lithuanian President

  Gitanas Nauseda

  said that the plane was forced to land in Minsk.

• The actions of the Belarusian authorities were condemned by many European leaders and threatened with serious consequences.

• After more than 7 hours of waiting, around 20:17 the plane took off from Minsk to Vilnius and landed in Vilnius around 21:30.

• Together with Protasevich, his girlfriend, a Russian citizen, was detained in Minsk.

• On May 24, the European Union summit demanded new economic sanctions against the Belarusian authorities and a flight ban.

• On the evening of May 24, Belarusian state TV channels showed Roman Pratasevich speaking about his guilt in organizing mass actions in Minsk.

  Relatives and friends of the journalist immediately drew attention to bruises on his face and unusual intonation, which may indicate possible long torture.

• A number of states and airlines banned flights to Belarus and in Belarusian airspace after the capture of Roman Pratasevich.

  They claim that such measures are taken for the safety of their own citizens.

• On May 28, Protasevich was placed in the KGB pre-trial detention center.

  There is also the girlfriend of journalist

  Sofya Sapeg

  , who is accused of "inciting enmity".

  The lawyer managed to get to Roman only on the fifth day.

  A non-disclosure agreement was taken from her.

• Also, on May 28, NATO Secretary General

  Jens Stoltenberg

  announced Moscow's possible involvement in the hijacking of the plane.

  On May 31, the North Atlantic Alliance limited access to its headquarters in Brussels to 5 accredited Belarusian diplomats.

• The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) announced the beginning of its own investigation into the incident.

• On May 29, the USA suspended the agreement on air traffic with Belarus and announced the preparation of new sanctions against Lukashenka and his entourage.

• The Proton mail service refuted the version put forward by the official Minsk about letters with information about false mining, which were allegedly sent from Swiss servers to several airports.

  There was only one letter.

  Earlier, the Palestinian bloc Hamas denied its involvement in the bomb threats, and the media found out that the threatening letter arrived only 24 minutes after the dispatcher's warning.

• After a series of bans, the number of "Belavia" flights dropped by 80.5% in one week.

  The state-owned monopolist company on the air transport market is trying to fill a sharp shortage with new flights to Russia.

• On June 4, the European Union banned all Belarusian airlines from flying in the EU's airspace and access to the EU's airports.

• At the beginning of June, the state television channel ANT showed Roman Pratosevich in the program of the head of the channel

  Marat Markov

  , called "Markov.

  Nothing personal."

  Radio Svaboda does not publish fragments of this interview, because it is not known under what circumstances the conversation was recorded and whether Pratasevich could refuse to answer the questions that were put to him.

  Experts talk about the blogger's high level of stress, fear and possible pressure, and associates and relatives believe that the "interview" was recorded under torture or the threat of torture.

• On June 8, after 11 days of absence, lawyer

  Ines Alenska was

  allowed to visit Protasevich .

  He was investigated, during which he was not even allowed to go to the toilet for 7 hours.

  Roman contracted tonsillitis while in prison.

• On June 14, Protasevich was brought to a meeting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus with journalists.

  Many journalists said that they do not believe that Protasevich speaks his words voluntarily.

  BBC journalist John Fisher left the hall, writing that the detainee would clearly speak under duress, while BelaPAN journalist Tatsiana Karaviankova said that she did not believe anything that was said, and expressed sympathy for the prisoner.

• On June 15, the director of Ryanair told how the Belarusian authorities pressured the captain of the plane and the crew.

• On June 16, the Russian media reported that the "General Prosecutor's Office of the People's Republic of China" thanked Lukashenka for the possibility of conducting investigations against Roman Protasevich." In response, Ukraine declared that these were intrigues of the Kremlin, since "the actual control over the temporarily occupied territories is carried out by the occupation administration of the Russian Federation The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demanded from the authorities of Belarus to comment on the information about the visit to Minsk by the so-called "prosecutor's office" of the self-proclaimed republic.

• On June 25, Roman Pratosevich and Sofya Sapieha were placed under house arrest.

• On January 17, 2022, the ICAO sent a report on the incident to the authorities of all member countries of the organization after several postponements of the deadline.

• The text of the report is on 30 pages.

  Among other things, it includes the transcripts of the negotiations of the plane's crew with the dispatchers and the diagram of the plane's flight over Belarus with an analysis of the distance between the passenger liner and the fighter of the Belarusian Air Force.

• "The authorities of Belarus did not provide the necessary information," says the ICAO investigation report on the Ryanair landing in Minsk.

• On January 20, the United States filed charges in absentia against the head of "Belaeronavigation"

  Leonid Churo

  , his deputy

  Oleg Kazyuchits

  , and two KGB employees for conspiracy to commit air piracy.

  The indictment was filed in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.

  According to him, he faces from 20 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment.

• The US Justice Department has concluded that Belarusian officials used a false bomb alert to force a plane carrying four US citizens to land in Minsk.

  According to prosecutors, it was necessary to arrest the opposition blogger Raman Pratosevich.

• The representative of "Belaeronavigation"

  Oleg Kazyuchyts

  said in response,

  that the filing of air piracy charges by American prosecutors against the heads of their company may be an instrument of pressure or provocation before the ICAO meeting, which will consider the report on the incident with the Ryanair Athens-Vilnius flight.

• On July 20, the ICAO published an official report on the incident, in which it stated that the Belarusian version of the events had not received any confirmation, the video and audio recordings were corrected and deleted, and the transcript of the conversations showed that the dispatcher of the team to the crew of the plane was dictated by the special services.

  The plane's claim was false.

• At the end of October 2022, from the decryption of the new testimony of the Minsk air traffic controller

  Oleg Galegov

  , it became known that during the negotiations with the plane's crew, not only the KGB employee was in the room, but also the general director of "Belaeronavigation"

  Leonid Churo

  , against whom the United States had previously brought charges.

  They approached the attendant, who then informed the dispatcher and another colleague about the Ryanair passenger plane, which was about to enter the airspace of Belarus from the side of Ukraine.

  The attendant mentioned the alleged bomb threat against the flight and that the plane should be diverted, but advised the dispatcher to inform the Lviv dispatch center in neighboring Ukraine.