The prosecution has asked a court in Minsk to convict and sentence Raman Pratasevich, a journalist who was detained in Belarus in 2021 after the commercial flight he was on was forced to land in Minsk, to 10 years in prison -- less than half the maximum possible -- on charges linked to his reporting.
The prosecutor also asked the Minsk regional court to convict and sentence Pratasevich's two co-defendants, Yan Rudzik and Stsyapan Putsila, who are being tried in absentia, to 19 and 20 years in prison respectively.
The three were authors of the Nexta Live Telegram channel that extensively covered unprecedented protests against official results of an August 2020 presidential election that the opposition and many Western countries say was rigged.
The journalists' trial started in mid-February. They were initially charged with forming and leading an extremist group, insulting the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, plotting to seize power through unconstitutional means, discrediting Belarus, financing extremist activities, inciting social hatred, organizing mass disorders, conducting acts of terrorism, and other actions aimed to undermine national security.
Putsila was additionally charged with orchestrating the activities of a terrorist organization.
Last week, the prosecutor at the Minsk regional court additionally charged Pratasevich and Rudzik with "repetitively forming and leading an extremist group" over their running of the Telegram channel called Belarus Golovnogo Mozga (Belarus of the Brain) based in Lithuania that also was critical of Lukashenka and his regime.
The prosecution, which did not comment on the sentence requests, could have asked for as many as 25 years, giving rise to speculation that "confessions" Pratasevich gave in public, which many consider to have been given under duress, may be the reason for his more lenient sentence guidance.
Pratasevich, who used to work as an editor and a key administrator of the Nexta Live channel on Telegram, fled Belarus in 2019.
In May 2021, he and his then-girlfriend, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, were arrested after their commercial flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk.
Belarus said it had ordered the plane to land after an anonymous bomb threat. Evidence later revealed Belarusian officials conspired to fake the bomb threat as a pretense for diverting the plane so they could detain the two.
Sapega was accused of administering a channel on Telegram that published the personal data of Belarusian security forces and sentenced to six years in prison in May last year. Last week, officials at the Russian Embassy in Minsk said Sapega will be extradited to Russia soon.
Pratasevich made several appearances on Belarusian state television in 2021 that prompted the opposition and Western officials to accuse Lukashenka and his regime of extracting video confessions through torture. The officials also called for Pratasevich and Sapega's immediate release.