German former Red Cross employee sentenced to death in Belarus

A court in Belarus sentenced a German citizen to death in late June after finding him guilty on multiple counts of extremism, terrorism and mercenary activity, according to a post on X by military monitoring group Belarusian Hajun on Friday.

Rico Krieger, whose LinkedIn page says once worked as a medic for the German Red Cross, has a young child in Germany, Belarusian Hajun added.

Belarusian human rights organisation Viasna confirmed the charges against Krieger on Friday, and said that they had been related to his involvement with a battalion of foreign fighters who served as part of a Belarusian military formation within the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is unclear whether an appeal has been launched against the verdict or if the sentence has already been carried out.

Belarus is the only country in Europe which still enforces the death penalty, with at least 15 crimes currently punishable by death. Only men aged between 18 and 65 who have been found guilty of committing or planning to commit one of a list of particularly serious crimes can be sentenced to death by firing squad.

The exact number of death sentences carried out in Belarus is unknown, but the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation, estimates that about 350 people have been executed since the country gained its independence in 1991.