The top court of Belarus on Wednesday ordered the execution by shooting of two childhood friends convicted over a Minsk metro bombing that killed 15 people in the country's worst post-Soviet attack. The April 11 blast struck the city's busiest metro station just a few buildings away from the offices of strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko in what the authorities said was an attempt to shake his 17-year rule.
The diplomatically isolated and economically ravaged nation is the only one in Europe to still conduct executions and Lukashenko has said he wanted to see the two 25-year-old factory workers punished with the full force of the law. Prime suspect Dmitry Konovalov stood stone-faced through the sentencing while his accomplice Vladislav Kovalyov scoured the packed courtroom for his mother and sister with his eyes. Neither said a word when the verdict was announced.
"The court has established that Konovalov carried out an act of terrorism," judge Alexander Fedortsov told the hearing as the two suspects stood motionless inside a metal cage with their hands behind their backs. "The motives involved an attempt to destabilise the situation and scare people," said the judge as cries of "Shame!" came from some people in the audience. Several women left the courtroom in tears.
Konovalov admitted guilt at the start of the trial while Kovalyov recanted his testimony and told investigators that he heard his friend from the eastern city of Vitebsk being beaten during interrogations. Lukashenko immediately blamed the attack on unnamed opponents of the state who were working in unison with Western governments and unleashed another wave of tough crackdowns on the opposition.
But one top Belarus security official who fled into exile to Germany and some local opposition members said they suspected the two had been set up by KGB secret police. The UN Security Council at the time of the bombing issued a cautious statement condemning the "apparent" terrorist attack.
The accomplice's mother Lyubov Kovalyova had to compose herself for several minutes after the verdict and later told reporters that she would be appealing to Lukashenko for clemency in a desperate attempt to save her son's life. "This execution must be prevented," the suspect's mother said. "The court simply did what prosecutors and investigators told it to do."
The pair can appeal to another court and a presidential pardon is the only remaining chance for their lives to be spared. But Lukashenko - who enjoys unprecedented powers in the nation of 10 million and is in total control of the court system - said earlier this month that he wanted to see the suspects put to death. "Our entire society suffered an enormous shock," Lukashenko told Russian state television.
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