‘They’ve raised the stakes’ Belarus sentenced a German citizen to death. Is it part of a deal with Moscow to pressure Berlin into a prisoner swap?

During a closed hearing in late June, a Belarusian court sentenced 29-year-old German citizen Rico Krieger to death after finding him guilty of multiple crimes, including terrorism, extremism, and mercenary activities. The Belarusian authorities claim that Krieger blew up a railway station outside of Minsk that serves as a transport hub for Russian military equipment and personnel. Nobody was injured in the explosion and according to the state railway company’s own estimate, the incident only caused about $500 of damage. Meanwhile, at least one Belarusian opposition politician has suggested that the sentence is part of an effort by Moscow to free ex-FSB officer Vadim Krasikov in a prisoner swap with Germany. Here’s what we know about the case.

Update: On Thursday, the Belarusian state TV channel Belarus-1 aired a segment titled “Confessions of a German terrorist” in which Rico Krieger, speaking through an interpreter, appears to confess to collaborating with Ukrainian intelligence and delivering a backpack to the Azyaryshcha railway station. He also says the German government has done nothing to help him and that only his family is fighting for his release. At the end of the report, he’s shown crying and asking Alexander Lukashenko to pardon him.

Update 2: On July 30, Belarusian state media reported that Alexander Lukashenko had “invited people involved in the process” to discuss Krieger’s pardon request. “As I’ve already said, dealing with cases involving the death penalty is the hardest part of being president. […] I just want to consult with you and hear your opinion on this matter,” the Belarusian leader reportedly said at the meeting. The news comes amid reports that at least six Russian political prisoners have been transferred to unknown locations, fueling speculation that a prisoner swap may be in the works. 

On June 24, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced German citizen Rico Krieger to death by firing squad for his alleged role in an explosion at a Belarusian railway station in the fall of 2023. Krieger was charged with a total of six felonies, including extremism and mercenary activities, though his death sentence was issued on the basis of a terrorism charge, the only offense punishable by death in Belarus.

According to Belarusian investigators, Krieger was in contact members of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, a unit of Belarusian soldiers fighting for Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). The Belarusian authorities allege that Krieger confirmed to the SBU “no later than September 20, [2023],” that he was prepared to “work for Ukrainian intelligence [and] commit terrorist attacks against Belarus’s national security as part of a criminal group.”

The investigators claim Krieger entered Belarus on October 2, 2023, as a tourist, bringing with him “phones and a drone,” which they say he used to take photos of soldiers and military equipment for the SBU. After completing this task, he was allegedly given the coordinates of an improvised explosive device, which he used, according to Belarus Today, to blow up railroad tracks near the Azyaryshcha railway station in the Minsk region.

Court documents indicate that the explosion took place at 11:22 p.m. on October 5, 2023. According to a spokesperson for state-owned Belarusian Railways, the blast destroyed railroad ties, misaligned the track, and damaged the railway bed. A damages claim obtained by Mediazona estimates the damage at 1,639 Belarusian rubles, or about $500.

Belarus Today also reported that the explosion occurred “right before the arrival of a passenger train.” Activists from the opposition group Community of Railway Workers of Belarus, however, told the independent Belarusian media outlet Zerkalo that according to their sources inside Belarusian Railway, the last passenger train actually left the station about 30 minutes before the blast. The activists also said the attack had no effect on train traffic and did not cause serious damage.

Additionally, according to the opposition group, Belarusian KGB agents showed up at a facility “from which the situation at the stations could be monitored” shortly before the explosion. “They didn’t intervene in the traffic at all, they just stayed there,” one Community of Railroad Workers representative told Zerkalo.

The Community of Railway Workers members believe Belarusian intelligence may have orchestrated the explosion. “The main indicator that this was a setup is that KGB agents were at a railroad facility at the moment [of the blast]. Maybe they knew that someone was preparing an explosion at a station, of course. But then why didn’t they stop traffic in advance?” one activist said.

Alexander Azarov, leader of the anti-Lukashenko initiative BYPOL, made a similar allegation in October 2023. According to the organization, the explosion may have been organized by KGB officers as part of an inter-agency training exercise aimed at testing the Defense Ministry’s preparedness amid a rise in anti-war railway sabotage attacks in the country.

Azarov said that one indication the explosion was part of an exercise is the fact that it took place along rarely-used tracks and didn’t cause any “especially serious” damage or affect train traffic. He also pointed to the fact that the authorities haven’t commented on the incident and that the three people who were declared wanted after the explosion have not been reported arrested. BBC News Russia noted that none of the named suspects physically resembled Krieger, who was arrested on October 6.

Krieger’s trial lasted for 12 hearings, some of which were held behind closed doors, according to Mediazona. On July 19, the German Foreign Ministry confirmed the reports of Krieger’s death sentence and said it was “working intensely” with the Belarusian authorities to defend Krieger’s interests. The following day, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said that Germany had been offered “a number of options.”

Former Belarusian diplomat and opposition politician Pavel Latushko has said that he believes Krieger’s arrest could be the result of a “backroom deal” struck between Minsk and Moscow with the aim of trading Krieger for Vadim Krasikov, an ex-FSB officer serving a life sentence in Germany for the assassination of former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park in 2019.

“Lukashenko and Putin decided not to leave Berlin any choice — they took a German citizen hostage and threatened him with the death penalty. They’ve raised the stakes,” Latushko said.

According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, the average amount of time that passes between a person being sentenced to death in Belarus and their execution is 11 months.