Belarus Lukashenko lifts death penalty for Germans

The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has overturned the death sentence against a German. This was announced by the presidential office in Minsk, as reported by the state agency Belta. The German citizen had previously sent a plea for clemency to the president, according to the Belarusian secret service KGB.

The 29-year-old German was sentenced to death in June for alleged mercenary activities and terrorism on behalf of the Ukrainian secret service SBU. Belarus (formerly Belarus), which is considered a dictatorship, is the last country in Europe to carry out the internationally controversial death penalty, namely by a shot in the neck. Belarusian state television recently showed the German, a paramedic, in a video in which he pleads guilty and asks for clemency.

The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin had condemned the death penalty and announced that the German citizen was receiving consular assistance. The treatment of the man was "intolerable". However, Berlin did not comment on information from the Belarusian Foreign Ministry that Minsk had made a negotiation proposal for a solution to the case.

The Belarusian opposition suspects that Lukashenko is demanding a high price for a pardon. Lukashenko could, for example, demand the release of a Russian convicted of murder in Berlin's Tiergarten park on behalf of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, on whom he is politically and economically dependent.