An ordinary Murder

The sentence passed to Uladzislau Kavaliou and Zmitser Kanavalau became a sentence to the regime of Lukashenka.

I should point out right away that I don’t know for sure whether Kanavalau and Kavaliou are innocent. But they shouldn’t have been murdered, simply because there is no reliable way to prove guilt of the two young men in today’s dictator Belarus, where not a single force authority can conduct an independent investigation, when in KGB isolation jail those under investigation are tortured, when the court passes verdicts communicated “from above”.

This case is quite dubious; either they were innocent persons or scapegoats shot to become propaganda’s demonstration objects for solved crimes statistics, or the actual criminals who only could commit this dreadful act on a command from the powers. And then it is easy to explain why the terrorist act was feasible at all, and why none from the persons detained after the explosion who had already been suspects was arrested until the subway exploded.

And the bullet in the back of the head makes these suspicions only stronger.

There is a big difference: one of the reasons why journalists and human rights activists defended the lives of Kavaliou and Kanavalau was the illegal nature of death verdicts passed by the Belarusian puppet court. In the modern world, death penalty is abolished not only because of moral aspects but also because of the possibility of a court mistake. In the case with Belarus, where during 18 years the court has been functioning like a fast-food restaurant where customers are served their food right after they order, this verdict is obviously questionable.

It is very painful to look into the eyes of Lubou Kavaliova. PACE Deputies still remember her face when she came to Strasbourg to bag to save her son. It was an exhausted sallow face and a voice that seemed to be coming from the mother’s womb, choked with tears and despair, dull but persistent: Don’t let them kill him…

Everyone did their best to save him. Human rights activists, journalists, European politicians. None said “innocent”, they only asked not to murder, but to have an objective investigation, to listen to the lawyers, witnesses, to carry out additional analyses.

The dictator never heard anything. And with him, the Belarusian court was deaf. We will probably never know if they were guilty or not. The evidence and bodies of the two men were destroyed immediately.

The way the society reacted to the case of Kanavalau and Kavaliou is an indicator of how the society treats the powers. According to the Independent Institute for Social-Economic and Political studies, the majority of Belarusians don’t believe they were guilty, which shows how big the abyss between the regime and the society is.

We should realize that it is meaningless to expect mercy from a dictator who has lost his people’s trust. Today Lukashenka’s only instrument of power is violence. The mistrust to the decisions he takes will first cause shock, then a dull grumble and finally an open protest.

P.S. We express our condolences to the families of Uladzislau Kavaliou and Zmitser Kanavalau.

Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of charter97.org