Dissident pulled off plane by Belarus gets 8 years in prison

TALLINN, Estonia — A court in Belarus convicted a dissident journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a commercial flight that was diverted to the country and sentenced him Wednesday to eight years in prison. Raman Pratasevich’s dramatic arrest in May 2021 elicited outrage in the West, with some leaders saying the plane’s diversion was tantamount to state- Belarusian flight controllers ordered the Ryanair jetliner traveling from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk, telling the crew there was a bomb threat against the flight. Pratasevich ran Nexta, a Telegram messaging app channel that was widely used by participants in mass protests against the disputed 2020 election that gave authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. Three days later, a message on a Telegram channel billed as belonging to Pratasevich sought to distance him from Sapega — saying they had separated long before and that he was married to someone else. Belarus’ opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, called the sentences to Pratasevich, Putsila and Rudzik “disregard for justice” on the part of “the Belarus regime,” which conducted “a fake trial.” Pratasevich, Tsikhanouskaya said in a tweet, has “been the regime’s hostage since the Ryanair hijacking.”