The government of Alexander Lukashenko is negotiating this issue. The Ministry of abroad Affairs of Belarus stated that, at the request of Germany, it had presented "specific proposals for solutions", and that "consultations" were ongoing. It has been ensured that the sentenced individual is under consular care. Krieger has been in prison since 6 October last year. He was charged with espionage, terrorism, the creation of an extremist organization and the illegal usage of weapons, explosives and ammunition – most likely under Article 289 of Part 3 of the Criminal Code on terrorism. Most of the time, the trial was held behind closed doors.
‘Extremist Group’
According to the ruling, it is the participation of the sentenced in the actions of the Konstanty Kalinowski Regiment – volunteers from Belarus fighting on the side of Kiev in Ukraine. The Lukashenko government pursues the regiment as a “extremistic group”. According to FAZ Krieger, he wasn't part of that regiment. Loyal to the Kremlin, Eurasia Daily's portal wrote that during the war Krieger was captured by Russian soldiers and handed over to Belarus, and was later accused of “sabotage” on the Belarusian-Russian border.
Germany, which, according to procedural documents, has 1 kid and lives in Lower Saxony, worked as an ambulance driver. This is confirmed by social media entries bearing the Ukrainian flag. According to the profile on LinkedIn, he previously worked as a rescuer for Germany's Red Cross and a bodyguard for the United States Embassy in Ber line from 2014 to 2017.
In July, the Belarusian Centre for the Defence of Human Rights "Spring" informed Krieger. Andrei Palud, coordinator of the run “Human rights defenders against the death penalty”, described the latest case as “unordinary”, due to the fact that for the first time the foreigner was sentenced to death in Belarus.
The hostages of Lukashenka
Former Belarusian diplomat Paweł Latuszko, who switched to the opposition side after the fraudulent 2020 presidential election, talks about another “act of state terrorism”. Lukashenko takes ‘the hostages’ to extort money or trade in Belarusians and possibly Russians imprisoned in the West. The admission of citizens of 35 countries, including Germany, to Belarus without a visa Latushka considered a propaganda procedure that could become a “trap” for foreigners.
Belarus, ruled by Lukashenko for 30 years, is the only country in Europe where the death punishment is inactive being executed – by a shot in the neck. usually the execution is discovered by relatives any time later, and they are not informed at all. There have besides been cases of keeping the burial site of the lost secret.
According to the planet Coalition Against the Death punishment (WCADP), an alliance of non-governmental organizations, including the Spring Centre, was sentenced to death in Belarus in May 2023. The last known execution of the death conviction was recorded in 2022. According to Amnesty International, 400 people have been executed in Belarus since the country gained independency in 1991. However, the executions of foreigners are rare.
