Belarusian Critic's Girlfriend Seen 'Confessing' On Camera After His Clip

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that Sofia Sapega could face criminal charges under several articles of the Belarusian criminal code

The girlfriend of a Belarusian blogger detained with him on Sunday after a plane they were travelling on was forced to land in Belarus appeared in a video on Tuesday evening in which she made a confession that the opposition said looked forced. Speaking fast and looking uncomfortable, Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen and the girlfriend of blogger Roman Protasevich, said in the video that she was an editor of a Telegram messaging app channel that had publicised the personal data of Belarusian law enforcement personnel, a crime in Belarus. A Ryanair passenger jet carrying Protasevich, a journalist critical of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and Sapega was forced to land in Belarus on Sunday due to a bomb hoax in an act denounced by Western powers as "state piracy". The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that Sapega, a 23-year-old student, could face criminal charges under several articles of the Belarusian criminal code.