Belarus: Dissident journalist sentenced to 8 years in prison

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Belarus has convicted a dissident journalist who was removed from a commercial airplane that was forced to land in the country.Raman Pratasevich stood trial on charges of organizing unrest and plotting to seize power. The court sentenced him to eight years in prison on Wednesday. He was arrested in 2021 when a Belarusian warplane forced the flight he was taking to Lithuania. Pratasevich ran a Telegram messaging app channel that was widely used by participants in mass protests against the disputed August 2020 election that gave authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.