Sheremet: It was a terrorist case in 1997. It failed.
- 16.09.2011, 14:02
We have not seen any serious proofs of guilt of these young men charged with a terrorist attack, television journalist Pavel Sheremet thinks.
“The terrorist attack was solved within 24 hours, many people were arrested, searches were carried out, but no one knows how the investigation was conducted. Firstly, it was a secret investigation; secondly, representatives of authorities and secret services did not give any explanations,” Sheremet said.
At a trial on September 15, Dzmitry Kanavalau (Dmirty Konovalov) admitted his guilt in organizing explosions in Belarus’s capital on April 11, 2011, in the Minsk metro and during celebration of the Independence Day on July 3, 2008. Uladzislau Kavalou (Vladislav Kovalev) denied his previous evidence and said he had given it under pressure.
The journalist turns attention to four important, in his opinion, moments: “Firstly, I remember the story of 1997, the famous killing, the blast of Mikalutski, who was involved in obscure operations with vodka. A group of people was charged with committing a terrorist act. These people were also accused of preparing an attempt on Lukashenka’a life. It was a secret investigation. One of the persons involved in the case died in a remand jail. He is said to have committed suicide. Only by accidence, due to interference of journalists, innocence of these people was proved and the terrorist case fell to pieces.”
The second moment: “Vitsebsk was turned upside down. Many families, including the Kanavalaus, have their homes searched. They did not find anything. No secret laboratory, chemical experiments and so on,” Sheremet writes.
Thirdly, the journalist recalled a blast in Minsk centre during celebration of the Independence Day in 2008. “I know for sure that the main version of the investigative team of the Interior Ministry was that the secret services related to Viktar Sheiman were involved in the blast. They were looking for proofs, but everything pointed at Sheiman, because there was struggling inside the law enforcement bodies. It is possible that someone used the terrorist attack to influence president Lukashenka.
The fourth moment is a story with fingerprinting. Kanavalau was fingerprinted, but this did not help investigators. “A policeman, who fingerprinted him, disappeared. Later he said that he had deleted these data from the database on someone’s order. There are a lot of odd, dubious stories,” Sheremet continues.
According to him, the terrorist attack took place in the time, when it was profitable for the Belarusian authorities. It distracted public attention from trials over opposition members after the 2010 elections.
“This terrorist attack casts shadow on the Belarusian authorities. This terrorist attack casts bloody shadow on president Lukashenka. If we do not see clear proofs of guilt of the people in the dock, it will mean that the Belarusian authorities play bloody games. It will be very difficult for Lukashenka to wipe off this suspicion,” the journalist emphasized.