Belarus sentences a German citizen to death for alleged terrorism, Berlin pulled into negotiations over his fate. After handing down the death sentence to a German citizen, Minsk says it will extend visa free travel to Belarus for 35 European countries.
Poland gives Alexander Lukashenko’s regime three conditions to prevent full suspension of goods transit between EU and Belarus, as diplomatic tensions rise over border crisis and prisoner release.
France blocks dozens of Olympics accreditation applications, citing suspected interference by Russia and Belarus.
Exiled Belarusian returns home – is sentenced to six years in prison for donating to a volunteer regiment fighting against Russia in Ukraine.
Eduard Babaryka, jailed son of former presidential candidate, given additional 18-month sentence, bringing total term to almost 10 years.
Minsk, Berlin in talks over German citizen on death row in Belarus over alleged terrorist act
Minsk and Berlin are holding “consultations” over the fate of German citizen Rico Krieger, sentenced in Belarus to death by firing squad for terrorism and mercenarism, Belarusian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Anatol Hlaz said on July 20.
Hlaz said that “at the request of Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Belarus has “proposed a number of options for the development of the situation.”
The German Foreign Ministry confirmed the circumstances of the case to Deutsche Welle, saying the German embassy in Minsk was providing consular support to the German citizen.
“The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane form of punishment that is rejected by Germany in all circumstances,” the ministry was quoted as stating, without providing more details of the case.
Krieger was sentenced to death by a court in Belarus, the Viasna Human Rights Center confirmed on July 19. The sentencing occurred on June 24, but details of it emerged only recently, with much of the trial being held behind closed doors. Krieger’s defense reportedly did not appeal against the sentence.
Belarusian propagandist Liudmila Hladkaya, who was allowed into the courtroom, claimed that Krieger arrived in Belarus “as a tourist” on Oct. 2, 2023. According to Hladkaya, the terrorism charges were pressed in connection with an explosion at a railway station in Azyaryshcha just east of Minsk on Oct. 5, 2023. The station is an important military cargo loading hub for the area.
Activists from the independent Belarusian railroad workers union said the blast happened on a siding, causing minor damage and no casualties.
The Viasna Human Rights Center initially linked the charges to a group of volunteer Belarusian soldiers, the Kalinouski Regiment, which fights against Russia in Ukraine. The regiment denied having any connection with the convicted man.
Krieger, 30, worked as a security guard in the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and later as a paramedic for the German Red Cross. The organization confirmed his employment but said Krieger was not part of any of its overseas missions.
Exiled Belarusian activist Pavel Latushka said that the Belarusian authorities may have jailed Krieger in order to exchange him for a Russian FSB officer, Vadim Krasikov.
Krasikov is currently serving a life sentence in a German prison for the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian-born Chechen dissident who had sought asylum in Germany. Krasikov shot Khangoshvili in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park in 2019.
Belarus remains the only country in Europe with capital punishment. In 2022, the use of the death penalty was extended to apply to “attempted terrorist acts” committed by a group or using toxic or radioactive substances.
Following death sentence, Belarus extends visa-free travel regime to 35 European nations
Belarus has broadened its 30-day visa-free travel regime for citizens of 35 European countries to demonstrate Belarusian “openness and peacefulness,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said on July 17.
Under the new policy, effective from July 19, citizens of 35 European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and most EU members, will be able to enter Belarus via all land and air checkpoints and stay for 30 days without a visa. The relaxed visa regime will be in effect until the end of 2024.
Previously, Belarus granted visa-free entrance to citizens of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Relations between Belarus and its three EU neighbors have soured significantly since Minsk held fraudulent presidential elections in 2020 and later took part in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Previously, other European nationals could enter Belarus without a visa if they arrived at the Minsk airport. However, Belarus was cut off from international flights after a Ryanair commercial flight was grounded in Minsk in 2021. One of the flight’s passengers, a political opponent of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, was taken off the aircraft and arrested.
Belarusian political analysts suggest that Minsk’s broadening of its visa-free travel might be a public relations stunt aimed at domestic audiences to contrast the recent bans on Belarus’ registered vehicles in the Baltic states with allegedly open Belarusian borders.
The Viasna Human Rights Center reports that 25 foreign citizens were in detention in Belarus on politically motivated charges as of July 1, 2024.
Ukrainians constitute the majority of them, following an intensified crackdown by the Belarusian authorities on any support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. In a recent prisoner exchange, Ukraine was able to free five of its prisoners, while at least eight more remain behind bars on charges of espionage.
At least three citizens of Poland, one Lithuanian, and one Latvian citizen are jailed in Belarus on politically motivated charges.
Authorities in Germany, the UK, and the United States advise their citizens against traveling to Belarus due to the risk of arrest and arbitrary persecution.
Poland considers suspending cross-border trade in bid to pressure Lukashenko into halting border crisis
Poland says it will shut down the cross-border transportation of goods with Belarus unless Minsk meets three conditions for normalizing the relations between the two countries, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said on July 22.
“Poland has specific conditions for Belarus if it would like to normalize relations, such as the end of hybrid attacks, the extradition of the killer of a Polish soldier, the release of imprisoned Poles,” Szejna said in an interview with Radio Zet, the country’s second-largest commercial radio station.
Warsaw has accused Belarus of deliberately encouraging migrants to illegally cross into Poland. Warsaw stepped up its efforts to end the artificial migration crisis after a Polish soldier was stabbed to death when trying to stop an illegal border crossing attempt.
Poland’s prosecutors say that the attacker remains in Belarus. Polish authorities have demanded his extradition.
Last week, Polish and independent Belarusian media reported a near-full halt of cargo transit at the Malaszewicze railway terminal on the border, and a pause in transit on the only remaining road cargo checkpoint. The media linked the slowdowns with Poland’s diplomatic efforts to pressure the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko into ending the migration crisis it has orchestrated on the EU borders.
Radio Zet also reported, citing sources in diplomatic circles, that Polish Foreign Ministry officials are currently in “difficult talks” with Belarus regarding the release of Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist sentenced to eight years in Belarus on politically motivated charges.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on June 22 that Warsaw has not ruled out a full border shutdown.
Maria Yeryoma
France rejects dozens of Olympics accreditation requests over suspicions that Russia, Belarus may attempt to disrupt the event
France has rejected dozens of applications for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris over suspicions that Russia and Belarus might attempt to disrupt the event, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told French weekly magazine Journal du Dimanche on July 20.
The French government has also introduced a verification system to boost cybersecurity and ward off disinformation and terror-related threats during the Olympics.
Of the slightly under 1 million applications from volunteers, journalists, and personnel that can access the Games’ restricted zones, some 4,340 were declined by the French authorities.
“In addition to intelligence and traditional espionage, there is the possibility of (agents) gaining access to computer network gateways to carry out a cyberattack,” Darmanin said.
“For example, we have turned away large numbers of ‘journalists’ claiming to be covering the games.”
Sixteen Belarusian and 15 Russian athletes have been allowed to compete as neutral individual athletes (NIAs) without their countries’ uniforms, flags and anthems.
Unlike the Russian National Olympic Committee, the Belarusian NOC – headed by Lukashenko’s oldest son Viktar – was not suspended. It remains in charge of approving NIAs and the press for participating at the Games.
The independent Belarusian Association of Journalists reported that the IOC had issued accreditations to cover the 2024 Paris Olympics to several representatives of state-owned Belarusian media that promote Russia's aggression against Ukraine, spread propaganda, and publish interrogations of arbitrarily detained persons and political prisoners in Belarus.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will be held between July 26 and Aug. 11.
Belarusian sentenced to 6 years for donating to a volunteer regiment in Ukraine
Brest regional court has sentenced a Belarusian citizen to six years in prison for sending money to "representatives of extremist formations, including armed ones, such as Kalinouski Regiment,” the Belarusian Prosecutor General Office reported on July 22.
The Viasna Human Rights group identified the accused as a 38-year-old resident of the western city of Brest, Natallia Levaya. According to the prosecution, throughout 2021-2022, Levaya sent around $1,344 to the Kastus Kalinouski regiment, a volunteer formation of Belarusians fighting on the Ukrainian side against Russian aggression. She also allegedly attempted to join the armed group.
In addition to the prison sentence, the woman was given a $12,000 fine.
The independent news outlet Nasha Niva suggests that Levaya was an artist and illustrator with a Belarusian tech company that relocated its business from Belarus in 2022 over the country’s involvement in the war against Ukraine. According to Nasha Niva’s sources, Levaya returned to Belarus from Poland and was detained while crossing the border.
Belarus currently holds over 1,400 political prisoners. On July 2, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko claimed that some "seriously ill” prisoners might be released. Human rights advocates reported that 18 prisoners were set free in the subsequent days.
However, in the meantime 17 more individuals were recognized to be persons prosecuted on politically motivated grounds. Viasna says at least 207 individuals were detained upon entering Belarus during 2023.
Jailed son of former presidential candidate given additional 18-month sentence
Eduard Babaryka, the jailed son of former Belarusian presidential candidate and political prisoner Viktar Babaryka, has been sentenced to an additional 18 months in prison for alleged “malicious disobedience” while in prison, Belarusian state news agency Belsat reported on July 12.
The new sentence has been added to Babaryka’s previous eight-year term for allegedly “organizing mass disturbances,” “inciting hatred,” and “evading taxes,” bringing the total sentence to nearly 10 years.
On top of that, 35-year-old Babaryka spent 18 months waiting to be charged in pre-trial detention – time that was not taken into account in the sentence. He pleaded not guilty and has been declared by human rights organizations to be a political prisoner.
Belarusian authorities have branded Babaryka as “an extremist” and “a terrorist.” He has reportedly been held in solitary confinement in prison since April 1.
The Criminal Code of Belarus does not limit the number of charges of malicious disobedience that can be leveled against a prisoner, allowing a term behind bars to become virtually endless. Human rights activists in Belarus have recorded several cases of this particular charge being applied against 33 political prisoners, sometimes repeatedly.
Babaryka, a businessman, headed his father Viktar’s election campaign in the 2020. The elder Babaryka was considered to be one of Lukashenko’s main political opponents during the 2020 Belarusian presidential election.
Eduard and Viktar Babaryka were detained on June 18, 2020, while en route to file signatures in favor of Viktar’s presidential candidacy. The detention effectively took Babaryka out of the presidential race.
Viktar Babaryka is currently serving a 14-year sentence in Belarus. On April 27, 2023, he was hospitalized with a collapsed lung and traces of severe beating.
He has since been held incommunicado for over a year.
Lukashenko marks 30 years in power
The Spotlight segment provides readers with the historical context of contemporary events in Belarus.
On July 20, 1994, a populist politician and former head of a collective farm – Alexander Lukashenko – was inaugurated for his first term as president after winning the country’s first and last fair and democratic elections.
Over the following three decades, Lukashenko built a dictatorship by silencing dissent, reverting to Soviet methods of controlling the economy, and conceding Belarus’ sovereignty to Russia bit by bit.
The first year of Lukashenko’s rule was marked by an attack on press freedom and banning publication of anti-corruption reports. Two contested referendums, in 1995 and 1996, handed Lukashenko the authority to dissolve parliament and granted him virtually unchecked powers in the country.
The country’s national symbols – the white-red-white flag and Pahonia coat of arms – were replaced with Soviet-style insignia, and the Belarusian language was gradually pushed out of public life. Anti-government protests in 1996, known as the Minsk Spring, were brutally oppressed.
In 1999 and 2000 four of Lukashenko’s political opponents disappeared. Former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, former Central Election Commission Head Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatoly Krasousky, and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski are presumed dead.
At around the same time, Lukashenko signed the Union State agreement with Russia. Although the Belarusian dictator claims to have pulled the struggling post-Soviet Belarusian economy back from the edge, the country has grown ever more reliant on subsidized Russian oil and gas.
To conceal the appalling inflation of the Belarusian ruble, Lukashenko has conducted three re-denominations. Without them, the current exchange rate would be 317.69 million Belarusian rubles to the dollar.
When Minsk was chosen as a neutral ground for talks between Kyiv and Moscow months into Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014, Lukashenko briefly succeeded at branding himself as a peacemaker, leading to a gradual lifting of Western sanctions.
However, mass protests against the rigged 2020 Belarusian presidential elections and a brutal crackdown by the Lukashenko regime on dissents, with over 1,400 political prisoners being jailed, ushered in a fresh wave of Western sanctions.
Then, in 2021, Lukashenko ordered the forced landing of a passenger flight to arrest a political opponent and engineered the ongoing migration crisis on the Belarusian-EU border.
In 2022, he turned the country into a co-aggressor in Russia's war against Ukraine by opening the country’s territory for a Russian attack on Kyiv. While not committing his troops to the battlefield, Lukashenko supported Russia’s nuclear blackmail and agreed to host mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group in 2023.
Four years into a still deepening political crisis, Lukashenko has set himself up for reelection in 2025, jailing more political opponents and continuing to support Russia's war efforts.
Maria Yeryoma
