Prosecutor General’s Office does not want to return to Kavalyou’s case

The Prosecutor’s General Office refused to reopen the case upon newly discovered evidence.

The mother and sister of Vitsebsk dweller who had been charged with staging the blast in Minsk metro on April 11, 2011 and sentenced to capital punishment, addressed the Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk with a request to reopen the criminal case in view of discovery of new facts, Radio Svaboda informs.

They noted that the UN Committee on Human Rights where they had sent a complaint, stated that the Belarusian state had violate the right to life of Uladzislau Kavalyou.

According to the UN Committee, when considering the case of Kavalyou, the Belarusian state had violated a number of requirements of the International Pack on Human and Political Rights: a ban on use of physical force and coercing into giving evidence against oneself, and assumption of innocence. Besides, the court was not impartial and independent, the right for resentence by a higher court had been violated.

In their statement the women stressed that after the capital punishment the violations of the international pact’s requirements, found by the UN Committee, could be righted only be reconsideration of the case.

As said by a human rights activist Raman Kislyak, it is clear from the answer of the Prosecutor General’s Office, that the decision of the Human Rights Committee in Kavalyou’s case is not on the list of reasons for review of sentence.

Uladzislau Kavalyou was sentenced to death on November 30, 2011 by the Supreme Court. On December 7 the accused lodged a petition for pardon to Alyaksandr Lukashenka. On March 17, 2912 the family of Kavalyou received a letter from the Supreme Court that the sentence had been enforced on March 15.

The petition of Kavalyou’s mother and sister was registered by the UN Committee on Human Rights on December 15, 2011 and considered on October 29, 2012.