Mother asks Europe to save son from Belarus execution

Dmitry Konovalov
and Vladislav Kovalyov

(Reuters) - Lyubov Kovalyova, a Belarussian receptionist, was listening to the radio at work in April when she heard that her son had confessed to helping plan a terrorist attack - a bomb in a metro station in the capital Minsk which killed 15 people.

Eight months later, after a two-month trial, her son - who says he is innocent - and a childhood friend were condemned to death, a sentence delivered in Belarus by a pistol shot at an unannounced time.

In a race to gain a reprieve, Kovalyova is taking her case to European institutions, and is also campaigning to abolish the death penalty in her country, the only one in Europe still to practise it.

She met the EU sub-committee on human rights last week. On Monday she spoke in Strasbourg to the Council of Europe, an international organisation promoting human rights and the rule of law. On Tuesday she was scheduled to appear at the European Parliament in Brussels.

"The focus now is to secure the life of my son," Kovalyova said at the weekend. "The ultimate goal is to get a moratorium on the death penalty."

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Source: Reuters, January 24, 2012

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