Lukashenko overturns German national's death sentence

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has overturned a German national's death sentence, the presidential office in Minsk announced, reported dpa, quoting state news agency BelTA.

The German citizen had previously sent a plea for clemency to the president, according to the Belarusian secret service KGB.

According to the authorities in Minsk, the 29-year-old man had been convicted of terrorism on behalf of the Ukrainian secret service.

He was sentenced to death in June, including on mercenary charges, but the verdict was only made public by human rights organizations a month later.

Belarus is the last country in Europe that still carries out the death penalty, specifically by a shot in the back of 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.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has sharply criticized the actions of the authorities in Belarus saying that the treatment of the man was "unbearable."

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.

There was speculation that Belarus, which is allied with Russia, could be seeking an exchange of prisoners.

Lukashenko could, for example, demand the release of a Russian convicted of a murder committed in a central Berlin park on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.