Two convicted of metro bombing in Minsk and sentenced to death
Despite a petition campaign and outrage across Europe, two Belarusian men have been sentenced to death for the April bombing of a Minsk metro station, which killed 15 and injured 200. According to Radio Free Europe, the two defendants, Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavalyou, were also found guilty of planning and implementing additional bombings, with Kanavalau the main culprit. The 114-page verdict said he planted the bomb in the metro and carried out two other attacks in Minsk and Vitebsk, the hometown of the 25-year-old factory workers and longtime friends. Kavalyou was convicted of assisting in the first two crimes.
Many remain uncertain if the suspects were guilty of the crime, which some have also speculated could have been staged by the authorities as an excuse for a security crackdown. Kanavalau refused to make a final statement, while Kavalyou recanted earlier admissions he had made to investigators, saying neither he nor Kanavalau was responsible for the crimes. Critics of the trial pointed to the lack of physical evidence linking the men to the explosives, as well as the judge’s failure to call key witnesses.
Belarus is the only European country to have the death penalty.
Former Belarusian Supreme Soviet Chairman Mechislav Hryb told Radio Free Europe, “As a person, as a citizen, and as a jurist, I was the first to sign a letter appealing for a moratorium on the death penalty. I did this consciously because I have had practical experience to convince me that judicial mistakes do happen, a completely innocent person can be sentenced to death.”
http://www.tol.org/client/article/22...tral-asia.html
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