Death sentence for Belarus pair over fatal bomb attack

Belarus, the only European country which continues to carry out state executions, has sentenced two men to death for a bomb attack at a metro station in Minsk which killed 15 people and wounded scores of others.

Rights organisations had urged authorities in the former Soviet republic not to impose the death sentence on factory workers Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov, both 25, arguing that their two-month trial had not met international standards.

Relatives, many of whom walked away from the courtroom in tears yesterday, denied the two men had carried out the attack, the worst such incident in post-Soviet Belarus. They said the guilty parties were still free.

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Only a pardon by president Alexander Lukashenko can now save the pair from execution – to be carried out by pistol shooting in Belarus – as the judgment was delivered by the Supreme Court and so cannot be appealed.

Konovalov, a lathe operator, was found guilty of terrorism for having planted the bomb and detonated it by remote control on a platform at evening rush-hour at Minsk’s “October” metro station on 11 April.

Kovalyov, an electrician, was convicted of complicity by supplying explosives and failing to tell police when he knew a criminal act was being prepared.

The prosecution claimed the childhood friends had dabbled illegally with explosives for years and had also been behind blasts in 2005 in their home town of Vitebsk and a separate bomb attack at Independence Day celebrations in Minsk in 2008.

Describing the two accused as “an exceptional danger to society”, judge Alexander Fedortsov said: “The court sentences [them] to the extreme punishment, death by execution.”

Authorities say they do not see any political undercurrents to the bomb attack, which was unprecedented in the tightly policed country which has no internal terrorism problem or ethnic conflict. But it coincided with tensions following a police crackdown on the opposition and a growing currency crisis.

Mr Lukashenko used the attack at the time to warn of attempts to destabilise the country of ten million. The autocratic leader who has ruled since 1994 enjoys extraordinary freedom of powers and is in complete control of the court system.

Kovalyov’s mother, Lyubov, who has led a campaign to try to save the two accused, told journalists: “The charges are false. We cannot allow this [execution] to take place.” Wiping away tears, she said she would appeal to Lukashenko for a pardon.

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In an earlier statement, she said confessions attributed to the men had been made under duress in pre-trial interrogation.

She said: “While they try to persuade people my son and his friend should be shot, the real criminals are going free.”

Rights group Amnesty International said the trial had failed to meet international standards and there were serious concerns that both men had been ill-treated to force them to confess.

Rights organisations say about 400 people have been executed in Belarus in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, including two convicted murderers last year.

In the past 16 years, Mr Lukashenko has pardoned only one person condemned to death.

The two accused, held in a metal cage surrounded by police guards in the courtroom, showed no emotion when the sentence was delivered.