The German Foreign Ministry announced that a German national had been sentenced to death in Belarus, hours after a Belarusian human rights group said a German army medic had been executed by firing squad.
The German government has not named its nationals, but the Viasna Human Rights Center said on Friday that Rico Krieger, 30, was convicted under Article 6 of the Belarusian Criminal Code at a trial held at the end of June. He has been in custody since November.
The exact charges against Krieger were not immediately clear, and Belarus’ official news agencies did not report anything about his case.
A statement from the German Foreign Ministry said: “The Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Minsk are providing consular assistance to the individual in question and are coordinating closely with the Belarusian authorities on his behalf.”
The Belarusian Justice Ministry has not reported any such cases and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident may be linked to the Kastosz Kalinowski Regiment. A group of Belarusian volunteers fighting against Russia in the Ukrainian war.Viasna reported.
Human rights groups say this is the first time someone has been put on trial in Belarus for mercenary activities.
According to Krieger’s LinkedIn profile, which Viasna said shows he worked as a medic for the German Red Cross and as an armed guard at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, an exiled Belarusian opposition leader, said she was “concerned” by the reports and was “gathering more information about his case.”
Belarus is the only European country that actively uses the death penalty, reserving it for serious crimes such as murder, terrorism and treason under atrocious circumstances.
Russia still has the death penalty, but it has a moratorium on executions and hasn’t carried out any since the mid-1990s.
It was not immediately clear whether Krieger would appeal the sentence.
The Kastosz Kalinowski Regiment was named after the Polish-Belarusian writer and leader of the 1863 January Uprising against the Russian Empire.
The group is one of many foreign-founded volunteer militias fighting alongside Ukrainian forces and is considered an extremist group in Belarus, a close ally of Russia.
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It is not yet clear what connections Krieger had to the group, but Belarusian opposition media have reported he may have had ties to units within the regiment known as the Western Battalion.
He was found guilty of six charges including firearms-related offences, neutralising transport and communication lines, forming or joining an extremist group, espionage, mercenary activities and terrorism, Viasna said.
According to Amnesty International, Belarus has reportedly executed up to 400 people since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Executions of foreigners are rare.
The authoritarian regime of longtime President Alexander Lukashenko has detained thousands of dissidents and civil society activists who oppose him.
Minsk made a surprise announcement on Wednesday that it would open its borders to citizens of 35 European countries for 90-day visa-free travel in a move to improve chilly ties with the West.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
