Former Nexta editor Roman Protasevich said he was pardoned. This was reported by the state agency BelTA.
“Literally, I just signed all the relevant documents that I was pardoned. This, of course, is just great news,” he said.
On May 3, a court in Belarus sentenced Protasevich to eight years in a high-security penal colony in the case of a “conspiracy to seize power.” On May 18, the verdict entered into force. In the Minsk Regional Court, when asked whether he was taken into custody, they then said that “this is in the order of execution.”
Protasevich reportedly did not appeal the verdict. In his last speech at the court hearing, he said that he recognized the “political defeat” and wanted to do “everything possible to repair the damage.”