A German man sentenced to death in Belarus has been pardoned by the country’s president, just a few days after news of the case became public. Rico Krieger, 30, was found guilty on terrorism charges in a case that was held behind closed doors and only became public last week.
Krieger, who formerly worked for the German Red Cross, was accused of placing explosives on a rail track in the country on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence.
No one was injured in the explosion that supposedly ensued. Earlier this week, Krieger appeared, handcuffed, in a staged TV interview broadcast on Belarusian state media. Crying, he begged the German authorities to intervene in his case.
“Mr Scholz, please, I am still alive … it is not yet too late,” said Krieger, who was pictured handcuffed inside a cell, appealing to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
The programme contained no evidence of Krieger’s guilt except for his confession. The KGB, as Belarusian secret services are still known, has been widely accused of torture and fabricating evidence. Belarus is the only European country to retain the death penalty.
On Tuesday, Belarusian state media reported that president Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s autocratic leader, had considered the case and granted a pardon to Krieger. Earlier, Lukashenko had met the prosecutor and defence lawyers, supposedly to gain a full understanding of the details.
It was not immediately clear if and when Krieger will be released from jail. The case was widely seen as an attempt by Belarusian authorities to put pressure on Berlin, and German diplomats were known to be in discussions with Minsk over the case behind closed doors.
It is possible that Krieger may form part of a broader prisoner exchange deal between Russia and the west. Lukashenko is a staunch ally of Vladimir Putin, and Moscow has long been keen to retrieve assassin Vadim Krasikov from a German jail. Krasikov was convicted of murdering a Chechen exile in a Berlin park in 2019.
On Friday, German government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said Scholz was aware of the case and “worried about these events”.