The tragic love story of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega just keeps getting stranger

The couple’s situation has changed radically since they were snatched from the skies by the government of Belarus and its unhinged leader Alexander Lukashenko, writes David Harding

Sofia Sapega and Roman Protasevich were detained in May (Telegram Channel Zheltye Slivy/AFP/Getty)

A few weeks ago this column focused on the desperate plight of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega, the couple snatched from the skies by the government of Belarus and its unhinged leader Alexander Lukashenko.

The pair were travelling on a Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania and flew over Minsk where it was forced to land after the pilot was brazenly being told by Belarus officials that there was a bomb on board.

On the ground, and with no bomb found, Protasevich and Sapaega were quickly arrested and whisked away to their grim fate. Their case captured headlines across the world but their plight remains clouded in scary uncertainty.

Since the last column, two notable things have happened. Firstly, Sapega, who is serving six years, has written from jail asking for clemency, claiming she now understands the “illegality of her actions”.

And the second thing – and this really is curious – is that Protasevich has apparently got married. Not only that, he was wed to an unnamed woman, just days after Sapega was handed her sentence. Until that point, the pair were still referred to as a couple.

It is unknown if the marriage was genuine, despite a picture on social media of Protasevich kissing his mystery bride and him claiming it was because there is a question mark over anything he says being the same as the words of a free person.

The timing was such that it could have been done by the authorities to further undermine Sapega’s morale, just days after she was told she would spend the rest of her twenties behind bars.

It may have taken place because Protasevich is under threat or his family is, or because the authorities want to undermine his reputation, especially among opponents of Lukashenko. He is the dictator’s most high-profile opponent and his integrity has been under question since his arrest in some quarters.

When he was taken from the plane, claiming he would be killed, many feared that would indeed be his fate. But Protasevich was placed under house arrest and has appeared in public sporadically to claim the Lukashenko regime was not quite as bad as he previously blogged. No doubt he was hardly in a position to say what he truly felt.

And he has continued blogging to say he has a “monotonous and boring” life – his new wife must be thrilled – and that he and Sapega were no longer together, that things were bad between them for some time, and she was relatively lucky to get only six years.

He has promised to blog more about his marriage “some other time”. Until then the whole case, and the fate of the two principals within it, remains a sad mystery.

Yours,

David Harding

International editor