Fellow soldier: “The suspect couldn’t learn explosives in our unit”

“Young Front” member Ivan Shilo, who served in the Army with the main suspect in the subway terrorist act, is 99% sure that it’s him in the video demonstrated by the investigation.

Soligorsk “Young Front” activist Ivan Shilo, who, as it turned out, served his Army term in the same battery in a military unit near Lepel with the subway terrorist act main suspect, reported to “Radio Freedom”: “We didn’t have any special explosives studies”. Such studies were mentioned by an Internet source on April 20.

“That is nonsense. That might be taking place in some field engineering units, but in our unit it didn’t, and we didn’t even have positions to train explosive experts for. Neither did he participate in the mass fight. He was also reportedly demoted – not true as well. Quite soon he was promoted to junior sergeant, and to get a higher rank wasn’t possible. I have no idea where such information might have been received from.”

According to Ivan Shilo, who served in the military in 2009, their battery had more than 40 people. “Many of them are being interrogated now, some several times already”, - says Ivan Shilo, who’s been in touch through the Internet with his former brothers-in-arms, learning from them about the arrest of junior sergeant K. as a suspect in the terrorist act. Ivan Shilo himself is studying in Poland now, and therefore hasn’t been interrogated about the terrorist act.

When asked if he recognizes fellow soldier K. in the video which is presented in the Internet as the one submitted by the investigation, Shilo replied:

“Yes, that’s 99% him. In the first part of the video it’s hard to see, but in the end, when he’s leaving subway after the explosion, that is sure him. Very unlikely that somebody may resemble him so much.”

The interviewer: “Many people are puzzled why the terrorist who had planned and committed that crime acted in such a stupid manner afterwards. He spotted himself on camera, didn’t change clothes, didn’t run away at all, but just went home to drink vodka. Do you have any doubts that the terrorist and your fellow soldier K. may be the same person or such behavior may be attributed to his personal characteristics?

“I don’t know. I’m not an expert. The subject which interests me most is his motivation. For instance, knowing him I don’t really believe in the motive voiced by the investigation – that he wanted to kill as many people as possible. Because he was a bit timid, inert, though. Plus, if we are speaking about a group of people clearly realizing what they are doing, if that was a plotted act, I wouldn’t say that he possessed any leading qualities to persist people to commit a crime carrying the death penalty. But on the other hand, when I learnt about his arrest, something inside me admitted that he, by himself, could have done it. Although it’s hard to tell for sure.”

Ivan Shilo remembers that his fellow soldier demonstrated a good knowledge of chemistry, especially when it came to what certain things consist of. Also, according to Shilo, K. himself would start conversations of the explosion in Minsk in 2008, on the Independence Day. “He would ask what I thought about it, who that might have been and if the criminals would be caught.” Shilo thinks he might not have recalled those conversations if K. hadn’t been arrested.

From the Internet Shilo knows that K.’s father, who is a watchmaker, has been arrested recently.

Let’s remind that according to the official sources the explosive device blown up in Vitebsk in 2005 was stuffed with watch parts. Now new information emerged in the Internet about the search conducted in K.’s apartment in 2005 – the apartments of all the city watchmakers were searched then. When asked if he heard anything of that from his military comrade Ivan Shilo said that K. either didn’t speak of his family or maybe mentioned something irrelevant.

In a day the 21th of April will mark the tenth day since the terrorist act. Will the arrested persons face charges anywhere soon, and how many are arrested at all? The press-service of The General Prosecutor’s Office of The Republic of Belarus doesn’t provide answers to these questions. Head of the press service Petr Kiselev reports:

“Can’t say anything. Only if I get any info… And you noticed that it’s not even us who comment on the events, but the members of the investigation group.”