Belarus said on Saturday it was holding “consultations” with Germany, a day after it emerged that Minsk had ordered the execution of a 30-year-old German man.

Rico K. was convicted last month by a Belarusian court on six articles of the criminal code, including “terrorism” and “mercenary activities,” Belarusian human rights organization Viasna reported Friday.

According to an article on the group’s website, he was sentenced to death by firing squad.

What did the Belarusian authorities say?

“At the request of the German Foreign Ministry, Belarus has proposed concrete solutions for the available options for developing the situation,” said Anatoly Glaz, spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

“The foreign ministries of both countries are currently holding discussions on this issue,” he added.

Glaz also said that Minsk had granted consular access to the convicted person, without naming K.

The German Foreign Ministry declined to immediately comment on the Belarusian comments.

On Friday, a ministry spokesman said it was aware of the conviction and that authorities were “providing consular services to the person in question” and “intensely protesting to the Belarusian authorities on his behalf.”

The details of the case remain sketchy

Few details have been officially released about the case, but the AFP news agency reported that the conviction is related to the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, a military unit made up of Belarusian citizens fighting alongside Ukraine against Russia.

Belarus is a close ally of Moscow and allowed Russian troops to be stationed in the country ahead of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Viasna also said the convictions were related to laws against mercenaries, agent activities, terrorist acts, creating an extremist group, intentionally disabling a vehicle or communications device and illegal acts involving firearms, ammunition and explosives.

It is unclear whether K. will be allowed to appeal the verdict.

K. has been in custody since November 2023 and was sentenced on June 24 after a largely secret trial, the human rights organization said.

He works as a medic for the German Red Cross and was previously an armed security guard for the US embassy in Berlin, according to his alleged LinkedIn profile.

Several people are executed every year

Belarus is the last European country that still carries out executions,

According to Amnesty International, more than 400 people have been put to death since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. But executions of foreign citizens are rare.

Between two and nine people have been sentenced to death each year over the past decade, the human rights group Belarusian Helsinki Committee reported on its website.

Over the past two years, Minsk has expanded the threat of execution as a punishment for high treason and “attempted terrorism.”

The country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, rules with an iron fist and has arrested thousands of dissidents and civil activists in recent years.

Many have been charged with “attempted terrorism,” including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled Belarusian opposition leader who was Lukashenko’s leading candidate in the disputed 2020 election.

Lukashenko ordered a brutal crackdown on mass protests that broke out weeks after the election.

He claimed he received 80% of the vote, while international election observers say the election was neither free nor fair.

mm/ab (AFP, Reuters)

Editor’s note: DW follows the German Press Code, which emphasizes the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us not to disclose the full names of alleged criminals.