In Belarus, Fate of 2 Sentenced to Die Is Unknown

Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov

MOSCOW — Any moment now, in a basement or courtyard somewhere in Belarus, two young men are to be put to death. They were arrested, tried and convicted for carrying out a deadly bombing last year at a subway station in Minsk, the Belarussian capital.

But there are serious questions about the case, so much so that international rights organizations and Western governments have pleaded with the Belarus authorities to put off the execution. Even several victims of the bombing have spoken up in defense of the condemned.

This week, Belarus’s president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, refused to pardon the men, meaning the execution could be carried out at any time. In fact, since officials do not typically inform family members or the news media of executions, both could already be dead.

As in Soviet times, prisoners on death row in Belarus are not told the date of their execution. Families rarely learn of an execution until after it has been carried out and are not told where loved ones are buried.

According to standard practice, Mr. Konovalov and Mr. Kovalyov would probably be taken from their cells without warning and led to a secret location. There, they would be blindfolded, dropped to their knees and shot in the back of the head.

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Source: The New York Times, March 17, 2012

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