A German citizen sentenced to death last month in Minsk has been shown in a video on Belarus television asking for mercy in a statement that appears to have been made under duress.
Belarus-1 state-run television aired the video of Rico Krieger, who was sentenced to death last month on a mercenary charge, late on July 25.
In the 17-minute video, the 30-year-old Krieger was shown sitting behind bars in handcuffs. During his monologue he said he is sorry and expressed hope that authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run Belarus with an iron fist for 30 years, will pardon him.
The practice of showing so-called repentance videos by opposition politicians or activists made under apparent duress after their arrests has been common in Belarus for years.
Krieger's "confession" appeared as though it was being used for propaganda purposes, with him speaking German with a voiceover translation into Russian.
A narrator's voice introducing Krieger says German officials remain silent despite Krieger's personal appeals to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
However, a government spokesperson told a news conference in Berlin on July 26 that "the chancellor is of course aware of the case and, like the entire government, is worried about these events, especially in connection with the death sentence."
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock later on July 26 commented on the actions of the authorities in Belarus.
"It is unbearable how the Belarusian regime paraded a German national on television," Baerbock told journalists in Hamburg.
She said the Foreign Office and the Germany Embassy in Minsk were in "close contact" with Krieger and his family and were providing consular support.
"We must do everything to ensure that his rights are maintained and remain protected," Baerbock added.
In the video, Krieger says he worked as a paramedic and in the security service of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin before he established an online contact with Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) via a foreign mercenary unit in the Ukrainian armed forces last year.
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Krieger said an SBU officer asked him to conduct several assignments before he could be allowed to join the mercenary group.
Namely, Krieger said, the SBU officers asked him to travel from Germany to Belarus via Azerbaijan and take pictures of military objects in the eastern Belarusian region of Mahilyou and the Azyaryshcha railway station near Minsk, which he did in early October and sent the pictures to the SBU via the Internet.
After that, Krieger said, he was instructed by phone to find a backpack on October 5, 2023, at a site coordinated by SBU officers and place it on railways, which he also did.
"Now I know that no one was hurt, that there were no human casualties," Krieger says in the video as he starts crying.
Krieger then says he was arrested on October 6 at the Minsk airport while waiting for his flight to Berlin.
At that moment, a video showing an explosion on the rails near a station appears on the screen with the date and time: October 5, 2023, 11:22 p.m.
"I definitely consider myself guilty.... I repent every second," Krieger says, adding that he can be executed at any time and asking German officials for help and Belarusian authorities for clemency.
The details of Krieger's case were not known until the Vyasna human rights group reported last week that he was sentenced to death in June for mercenary activity, terrorism, creating an extremist group, intentionally damaging a vehicle, and illegal operations with firearms and explosives.
According to Vyasna, it was the first trial in Belarus for "mercenary activity."
Belarusian authorities have not commented on the case.
