TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian court on Friday convicted 12 people, most of them in absentia, and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 25 years for an attack on an airport that damaged a Russian military radar plane.
The Beriev A-50 aircraft was hit by a drone strike at the Machulishchy airport near the capital Minsk in February 2023. Russia stations troops and equipment in Belarus that are used in the war in neighboring Ukraine.
A Belarusian guerrilla group largely made up of former soldiers who claimed responsibility for the attack.
The verdicts were reported on the state news agency Belta. But independent news site Mediazona reported that seven of the convicts were not in the country.
Four of the defendants were convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison. All are outside Belarus, Mediazona said. Others were sentenced on lesser charges to prison terms ranging from two years and three months to fifteen years.
