Say NO to the death penalty in Belarus

On June 24, a 29-year-old employee of the German Red Cross, Rico Krieger, was sentenced to death in the Minsk Regional Court. In Belarus, he was charged under six serious articles of the Criminal Code, including for "an act of terrorism" (Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code). The German citizen did not appeal the verdict and it came into force. On July 30, it became known that Rico had applied for pardon to Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The latter, in turn, convened a meeting on this issue with "people directly involved in handling the case." In the evening of July 30, as propagandists write, Lukashenka made a decision to pardon Krieger.

To discuss the situation with Rico Krieger, Lukashenka held a meeting on July 30, and in the photo from there you can see an employee of state publishing house SB. Belarus Segonya Liudmila Hladkaya, Deputy head of the Lukashenka administration Volha Chuprys, Chairman of the KGB Ivan Tsertsel, and others. According to Belta, the lawyer of German citizen Krieger expects him to be pardoned:

"We are counting on an act of humanism, which will be performed by the head of state. Everything is in the hands of the President of the Republic of Belarus. The rest is insinuations. We read a lot of data and information in the media, but I personally have no data confirming either the pardon or the rejection of the application. Aliaksandr Ryhoravich said that he would think and make a decision," lawyer Uladzimir Horbach said after the meeting.

In the evening of July 30, Lukashenka pardoned the German.

"The things that has accumulated both a lot of talking and silence around itself in recent days has happened. Rico Krieger has been pardoned. And this is very good news. I personally refrain from all thoughts like 'the state itself sentenced him to death, and then pardoned him.' Let's be honest, they could have shot him. I look at it through the human rights lens and see this event as an act of humanism, no matter who says what and no matter what the circumstances are.

I would like to remind you right away that there is another person sentenced to death now, Aliaksandr Taratuta. I want to emphasize it and call for the same act of humanism in relation to him: not a citizen of Germany, but a citizen of Belarus," commented Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty in Belarus campaign.

The Rico Krieger case: we have collected everything that is known

Viasna has collected everything that is known about the Rico Krieger case, and Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty campaign, comments the prospects.