Rico Krieger returns to Germany after Belarusian death sentence
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- Rico Krieger during the exchange. Screenshot from the video of the Russian FSB
Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus and later pardoned, has been returned to Germany, the Kremlin press service said. Rico Krieger returned to Germany as part of the prisoner exchange, held between the United States, Russia, Germany and Belarus.
On June 24, Rico Krieger, a 29-year-old employee of the German Red Cross, was sentenced to death by the Minsk Regional Court. In Belarus, he was charged under six articles of the Criminal Code, including "act of terrorism" (Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code). The German citizen did not appeal the verdict and it became effective. On July 30 it became known that Rico had written a pardon addressing Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Lukashenka called a meeting on the matter with "people directly involved in the consideration of the case". On the evening of July 30, Lukashenka decided to pardon Krieger.
