First day of court hearing against suspects in Minsk metro attack case


A court trial against two suspects accused of committing a terrorist attack in capital’s metro on April 11th, Zmitser Kanavaw and Uladzislav Kavaliow, began today in a court in Minsk. Reading the indictment against Kavaliow took hour and a half.

Aleksiey Stuk, the deputy prosecutor general, informed that Kanavaw has orchestrated four terrorist attacks since 2005. Between 2002 and 2004, he conducted some smaller explosions and arson in his hometown Vitebsk, claimed Mr. Stuk. The preparations for the Minsk metro attack started in July last year, when Kanavaw started to construct explosive weighing at least 12 kilograms. Trotyl and other materials for bomb construction were purchased from the other suspect, Mr. Kavaliow.

According to the indictment, the two men got in touch via phone. Kavaliow was already in Minsk, and Kanavaw joined him there so that they could prepare and conduct the bomb attack together. On April 10th, in the evening, Kanavaw went to the metro station and chose the location of the planned attack.

121 victims, together with their relatives and representatives, are taking part in the hearing. 401 people did not show up for the trial, more than half of them requesting to hold trial without their participation.

The prosecutor called Kanavaw’s actions a “conscious resistance to the society, a willingness to commit a crime, actions based on fake superiority, and a conscious terrorizing of the society and destroying public order”.

Belsat

www.belsat.eu

TWITTER