former dissident journalist Roman Protassevich sentenced to eight years in prison

His spectacular arrest had sparked an outcry and Western sanctions against Minsk. Roman Protassevich, a former dissident journalist arrested in Belarus in 2021 after the interception of an airliner, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday May 3.

According to the state-run Belta news agency, Stepan Poutilo and Ian Roudik, two other defendants in exile abroad, were sentenced in absentia to 20 years and 19 years in prison. They faced a series of charges, including public calls to “take power”to commit “terrorist acts” and insult to the Head of State.

The three men are the founders or have worked for the opposition media outlet Nexta. The latter played a key role in the historic protest movement against the re-election in August 2020 of President Alexander Lukashenko, by massively publishing calls for demonstrations and publishing images of mobilization and police repression. This earned this media to be banned and classified as a “terrorist organization” by the Belarusian justice.