On 11 April 2011 at 17:55 an explosion occurred at Kastrychnitskaya metro station. The explosive device that detonated killed 15 people and injured 203.
Near the second and third cars of the train heading towards the "Institute of Culture" station, during rush hour at one of the most crowded stations, an explosion of an improvised radio-controlled explosive device occurred in the crowd of passengers.
25-year-olds Dmitry Kanavalov and Uladzislau Kavalyov were sentenced to death on 30 November 2011 for organizing the explosion.
Coordinator of the organization "Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty in Belarus" Andrey Paluda:
"The case against Uladzislau Kavalyov is indeed unique compared to many other cases in which death sentences were handed down and on which we worked within the organization. I speak only about Uladzislau because within our organization we worked specifically on his situation and together with his relatives prepared an appeal to the UN Committee on Human Rights.
The case stands out first of all because behind this case is the fate and life of Uladzislau, whose death sentence was handed down and carried out in a very short time without the possibility of an appeal to the court of second instance.
Secondly, Uladzislau's guilt, the process of reviewing the case, the results of the review raised many questions not only among human rights defenders, but also in society as a whole. As an indicator, precisely after the execution of this death sentence, for the first time in the history of surveys, independent sociological research fixed an excess of the number of supporters of abolishing capital punishment over opponents.
The third point concerns how the mother of Uladzislau, Liubov Ivanovna, fought for the life of her son, and after receiving documents about the execution of the death sentence, fought for the rehabilitation of his name in the eyes of people and for the abolition of this shameful form of punishment.
It is worth noting that the appeal to the UN Committee on Human Rights was considered in a record short time — less than a year. The Committee recognized that the investigation was conducted with numerous errors, that physical force was applied to Kavalyov and coercion to give testimony against himself, that the presumption of innocence was violated, that the court was not impartial and, most importantly, that the right to life was violated. This terrible incident, connected with the explosion in Minsk metro, is a tragedy for our entire society: for the relatives of those who died, who were wounded, convicted and executed. In my opinion, it requires additional investigation and reconsideration".
