July 31, Pozirk. Rico Krieger, a German national sentenced to death and pardoned yesterday in Belarus, is a victim of Belarusian security agencies’ deceptive operation, said BelPol, an association of former law enforcers.
Krieger has not committed any act of terror; the criminal case against him was completely fabricated; and his arrest was nothing but hostage taking by the “criminal Minsk regime,” BelPol said, citing its investigation.
It said that Krieger might have wanted to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces but sent his message to a fake chat set up by Belarusian law enforcers who deceived him into coming to Belarus for a test assignment.
BelPol said that the Belarusian law enforcers fully controlled him upon arrival. Belarus 1, a state-controlled propaganda television network, claimed that Krieger was in contact with officers of the Security Service of Ukraine. BelPol doubts that this is true.
At the final stage of the deceptive operation, the law enforcers told him to take a bag with explosives to a railroad station outside Minsk. The law enforcers detonated it, causing minor damage to tracks, which was fixed within two hours, BelPol said.
Investigators charged Krieger with an act of terror, which he did not carry out, BelPol stressed.
The association urged the West to stop coddling the Łukašenka regime and close the Belarusian border for cargo traffic until he releases all political prisoners.
Judge Aleh Łapieka of the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Krieger to death on June 24 after finding him guilty of illegal handling of firearms, deliberate disabling of a vehicle or lines of communication, association with an extremist group, committing an act of terrorism, conducting covert operations and mercenarism, the Viasna Human Rights Center reported.
