Journalist Gladkaya on how German authorities abandoned Krieger

Journalist Lyudmila Gladkaya, who covered the trial of German citizen Rico Krieger, sentenced to death in Belarus, notes that the German authorities simply abandoned their citizen and may even be interested in having the sentence carried out. She shared her impressions with colleagues after a meeting with Belarus’ President Aleksandr Lukashenko, BelTA reports.

Lyudmila Gladkaya told how, just a few minutes after the death sentence was announced, German diplomats who came out of the courtroom hugged and smiled, “They were patting each other on the shoulder and smiling… It was strange to me. I think: a citizen of your country has just been sentenced to death (even if not to take into account what he has committed), and you have smiles… And I also got the impression that these people (since now we don’t hear any actions or statements from the German authorities), maybe, just really don’t care. So they abandoned a citizen of their country,” the journalist said.

“Anyway, no matter what crimes a person has committed, he is a citizen of your country. As it seems to me, it is your duty to at least try to help him in some way, somehow contact him, at least to do something for him. And there was nothing of that here. I even caught myself thinking at some point that, maybe, they want the death sentence to be carried out?” Lyudmila Gladkaya said.

According to her, it turns out that there is no one to protect this person now. “So here he is in Belarus, appealing to the President for pardon. He understands it is pointless to appeal to his authorities,” the journalist said. “It doesn’t matter if he is a German citizen, what he did, our President tries to thoroughly study any situation. Therefore, different issues have been discussed in detail today.”

“Of course, I understand that these are very serious crimes, there is absolutely no justification for them. While sitting in the courtroom, I just didn’t understand how a person in his right mind was even capable of doing such a thing. This is a terrible crime: a terrorist attack. On the other hand, after seeing all this, all this reaction that he was abandoned… Honestly, I even felt sorry for him in a humane way,” Lyudmila Gladkaya said.

“The decision should be made by the President. He needs to make a very difficult decision, but I’m convinced that, as always, he will act wisely,” the journalist said.

Lyudmila Gladkaya shared another observation from the trial, being surprised by the position of some people regarding the fact that the amount of damage as a result of the German citizen’s actions is actually small.

“This is a serious, terrible crime. Yes, the amounts are small. What if the train was supposed to arrive a minute after the explosion? And if this minute had not happened? And if the explosion had happened just at the time of the train’s arrival?” the journalist posed logical questions.

The German diplomats present regularly smiled at the facts that were voiced during the trial. “Representatives of the consulate behaved in court in such a way. They smiled, for some reason they were amused when all the circumstances were read out,” Lyudmila Gladkaya said.

As BelTA reported, on July 30th, Aleksandr Lukashenko invited those involved in the trial of a German citizen to sort out the situation and, among other things, consult taking into account the submitted petition for pardon. The meeting was attended by State Security Committee (KGB) Chairman Ivan Tertel, Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration Olga Chupris, investigator in the case, Deputy Head of the KGB Investigation Department Aleksandr Grib, lawyer Vladimir Gorbach and journalist Lyudmila Gladkaya, who covered the trial.

Rico Krieger was found guilty of an act of terrorism, agent activity, mercenary activity, creation of an extremist formation or participation in it, illegal storage and carrying of explosives and explosive devices committed by an organised group, intentional damage to communication routes, which could lead to human death, crash, accident and other grave consequences. According to the totality of the crimes, he was sentenced to an exceptional measure of punishment.