German sentenced to death in Belarus

The Belarusian organization Vjasna announced on Friday that the 30-year-old was convicted of several crimes, including “terrorism” and “mercenaryism” on June 24. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin said the case was known and German authorities were “intensifying” work on the man.

The process was partly conducted behind closed doors. Belta, the Belarusian state news agency, did not initially report the case. Vyasna said the Germans’ convictions were linked to the Castas Kalinus Regiment, a military unit of Belarusian volunteers that fought alongside Ukraine against Russia. In Belarus, the regiment is classified as an “extremist group.”

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Viasna said the court found the German guilty of a total of six charges, including founding or participating in an “extremist group” and intelligence activities. The NGO reported that the man has been detained since November 2023. It was initially unclear whether he would appeal the verdict.

Affected persons receive consular care

The German Foreign Ministry said the person involved would be placed under consular care. The Foreign Ministry and the Minsk embassy were “actively lobbying the Belarusian authorities on his behalf”. The death penalty is “a cruel and inhumane form of punishment that Germany opposes under all circumstances”.

According to the profile assigned by Wjasna to the 30-year-old on the online network LinkedIn, he worked as a rescue worker for the German Red Cross and as a security guard at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. According to the NGO, the German’s case is the first to be tried in Belarus for mercenary behavior. Wjasna has an international reputation; its founder Ales Bjaljazki was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

Since the start of the Russian aggression war in Ukraine, several people have been arrested in Belarus on suspicion of sabotage activities against Kiev with the support of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Convicted persons were executed by gunfire

Belarus is the only European country that still sentences and executes men. Those sentenced to death are executed by firearm. The execution dates are not announced, and the bodies of those executed are not returned to their families. They also do not know where they are buried. According to human rights organization Amnesty International, up to 400 people have been executed since Belarus’ independence in 1991. However, the execution of foreign citizens is rare.

On Wednesday, Minsk announced that it would allow citizens of 35 European countries to enter the country visa-free for 90 days. In this context, Berlin pointed out that not every “country that offers visa-free entry is a good tourist destination”. “For Belarus, for example, there is a travel warning,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday in the online service X.