Roman Protasievich was sentenced to 8 years in prison on May 3. He was arrested after a Ryanair flight he was on was hijacked to be landed in Minsk.
The Telegram Nexta news channel was a critically important news medium for protesters during protests against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020. His girlfriend, the Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, remains in prison, arrested with him on the hijacked plane and sentenced to 6 years in jail. The Belarusian president will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.