Belarus Orders Jail Terms Against 12 For Sabotaging Russian Plane

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Belarus orders jail terms against 12 for sabotaging Russian plane

Belarus on Friday sentenced 12 people to prison terms ranging from two to 25 years on terrorism charges over the 2023 sabotage of a Russian military plane that was claimed by pro-Ukraine activists

Moscow, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Oct, 2024) Belarus on Friday sentenced 12 people to prison terms ranging from two to 25 years on terrorism charges over the 2023 sabotage of a Russian military plane that was claimed by pro-Ukraine activists.

In February 2023, a group of opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko's regime said they had destroyed a Russian army spy plane at a base outside Minsk.

Russia did not comment on the operation and Minsk initially denied it, but later called it an act of terrorism and blamed Ukrainian security services.

"The Minsk City Court sentenced 12 people accused of involvement in the 'terrorist attack' at Machulishchy (air base) to terms from two years and three months to 25 years in prison," Belarus prosecutors said.

Only five of the group -- Denis Sokolov, Evgeny Tochitsky, Maksim Lopatin, Sergei Loparev and Oleg Sychev -- are in Belarus.

The alleged mastermind of the sabotage, Nikolay Shvets, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, was part of a rare prisoner exchange with Ukraine this summer, which included some people who were not prisoners of war.

Three others sentenced -- Alexander Azarov, Vitaly Yakutika and Mikhail Demin -- are also not in Belarus.

The defendants faced a range of charges including terrorism, deliberate disabling of an aircraft and treason.

Belarus has seen a wave of sabotage acts -- especially on its railways -- since Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch its Ukraine offensive in 2022.

The 2023 attack occurred at the Machulishchy airfield outside Minsk, with the partisans saying they had blown up a Russian Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft.

Lukashenko said several people had been arrested in March 2023.