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German sentenced to death in Belarus asks for pardon on TV

July 26, 2024

A German citizen who was sentenced to death in Belarus has asked Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for mercy in a video broadcast on state television.

https://p.dw.com/p/4ikZK
A prison cell window behind barbed wire in Minsk, Belarus
The Viasna human rights group said Rico K. was convicted by a Minsk court at the end of JuneImage: Zuma Press/IMAGO

A 30-year-old German man sentenced to death in Belarus asked for pardon from President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday in a television appearance. 

"I really hope that President Lukashenko will forgive me and pardon me. I deeply regret what I did and I am relieved that there were no victims," Rico K. said on Belarusian public television, as per Russian news agency TASS. He also added that he felt he had been "abandoned" by the German government.

"I regret every single second. I can count myself lucky that no one was killed or injured. Thank God," he said. 

Several human rights organizations have called on Belarus not to carry out the execution.

What is the German man accused of?

He said Ukraine had asked him to photograph Belarusian military sites last year. Rico K. was also accused of putting an explosive device on a railway line in Minsk.

The Viasna Human Rights Center said he had been convicted under six articles of the criminal code, including terrorism. A trial was held in June in secretive conditions. The verdict was made public only a month later.

The organization also said Rico K. had been employed as a security officer with the US embassy in Berlin and worked as a medic for the Red Cross, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The German embassy in Minsk was "providing the person in question with consular services and are making intensive representations to the Belarusian authorities on his behalf," a source at the German Foreign Ministry told AFP news agency last week. 

The source also added that Germany rejected the death penalty as a form of punishment under any circumstances.

The death penalty is legal in Belarus, and the country has carried out about 400 executions since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. However, executions of foreign citizens are very unusual.

Recently, Lukashenko's government has cracked down on dissent and protest, and detained thousands who speak up against him.

tg/rc (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

An earlier version of this article included Rico K.'s entire name. DW has removed it following a request from his family in line with the German press codex.