- Title: BELARUS/FILE: Two men sentenced to death for Minsk metro bombing
- Date: 1st December 2011
- Summary: MINSK, BELARUS (NOVEMBER 30, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF MINSK COURTHOUSE BELARUSSIAN FLAG WITH SYMBOL OF JUSTICE HOLDING SWORD AND SCALES IN BACKGROUND COURTHOUSE STEPS BELARUSSIAN NATIONAL SEAL VARIOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS WOMAN BEING PATTED DOWN BY SECURITY OFFICER AS SHE ENTERS COURT FOYER CORNER OF DEFENDANT'S CAGE SEEN THROUGH PEOPLE WALKING IN HALLWAY CAME
- Embargoed: 16th December 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Belarus
- Country: Belarus
- Topics: Crime,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVA1ISZZR32BBHU8XKASU3HH68M7
- Story Text: A court in Belarus sentenced two men to death on Wednesday (November 30) for carrying out a bomb attack at a metro station in central Minsk which killed 15 people and wounded scores of others.
Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov, both 25, were arrested three days after the explosion on a packed platform during the evening rush-hour on April 11.
Rights activists had urged authorities in the former Soviet republic not to impose the death sentence. Belarus is the only country in Europe to have retained the use of capital punishment.
Describing the accused as "an extreme danger to society", Judge Alexander Fedortsov said: "The court sentences (them) to the extreme measure of punishment, death by execution."
Kovalyov's mother, Lyubov, who has led a campaign to save the two accused, said before the sentence was passed that any confessions had been made under duress in pre-trial interrogation.
"The judge made this decision just because my son changed his testimony in court. I'm going to appeal to the president. I don't want there to be a mistake from the court. You can't let that happen," Kovalyova told reporters outside the courthouse, adding, "The accusation against him is completely fabricated."
Authorities say they do not see any political undercurrents to the bomb attack which was unprecedented in a country which has no internal terrorism problem or ethnic conflict.
But it coincided with unusual tension following a police crackdown on the opposition and a growing currency crisis.
President Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic leader who has ruled Belarus since 1994, used it at the time to warn of attempts to destabilise the country of 9.5 million people.
One of the metro bombing victims, Ludmilla Zhechko attended many of the court sessions, but was not satisfied with the verdict.
"Maybe I didn't hear anything about that, but I don't know. I tried not to miss any of the court sessions--I tried to soak everything up like a sponge--but I still have such a huge number of questions that I am not going into the metro any time soon. That I can tell you for sure, you understand," Zhechko said.
The prosecution said the two men, friends since childhood, had dabbled with explosives for years and were behind explosions in 2005 in their home town of Vitebsk and a separate bomb attack at Independence Day celebrations in Minsk, the capital, in 2008.
"They want to make it look like everything started from small blasts and ended in a such a huge explosion. Yes, maybe, but I find it hard to believe that a lathe operator and a mechanic committed this (crime) together," Zhechko said.
Belarussian rights activist Ludmilla Gryzanova decried the court proceedings.
"What was said today in court is even less convincing than was said by the investigator and the prosecutor. The judges today bypassed the most critical questions," Gryzanova said.
The two accused, held in a metal cage surrounded by police guards, showed no emotion when sentence was delivered. There were boos, sarcastic laughter and a cry of "not true" from the public seating area when the judge read out the sentence.
"Of course no one said 'hooray for the most just court in the world!' A lot of people cried and yelled 'shame', of course, that doesn't mean that it was somehow organised. People just expressed themselves individually. It was emotional. People were crying, women were crying, do you understand? It was awful. I didn't see one person who would say that the court is right." Gryzanova said.
Since they were tried by the Supreme Court, the accused have no right of appeal and their only hope of surviving is a pardon from Lukashenko. In the past 16 years, he has pardoned only one person condemned to death.
Rights organisations say execution is carried out by shooting with a pistol. Relatives are told only after sentence has been carried out and those executed are buried in a secret location.
The court was held in a hall used by actors for rehearsals, with the accused on a stage together with the judge, lawyers and other court officials, lending a theatrical impression to proceedings.
Konovalov was billed in court as the dominant figure in the partnership and was said to have carried out the crime. Kovalyov was accused of complicity by supplying explosives and failing to tell police when he knew a criminal act was being prepared. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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