A year has passed since the execution of Kanavalau and Kavaliou: human rights defenders put new questions

The first anniversary of the execution of Uladzislau Kavaliou and Dzmitry Kanavalau, sentenced to death on charges of terrorism, is being marked this days. Pitifully enough, the exact date of the execution remains unknown: it is only known that it was conducted on 11-15 March.

During a press conference held in Minsk on 13 March, the mother of one of the executed, Liubou Kavaliova, stated that she had finally received an answer to her review appeal to the Supreme Court, filed by the counsel back in September 2012. The answer was found in Bar Association #2 of Leninski district of Minsk where the lawyer worked. It had been filed back in November 2012.

Participants of the event which was held at the office of the "For Freedom" movement were also lawyer and human rights defender Raman Kisliak, human rights defender Pavel Levinau and the head of the "Human Rights Alliance" center Liudmila Hraznova.

Liudmila Hraznova stated that the things Liubou Kavaliova was doing were a real exploit of a mother who continued her struggling for the honor of her killed son and justice despite the threats she was receiving.

Human rights defender Rasman Kisliak stated that it was important to find out which state institution executed the death verdict to Kanavalau and Kavaliou:

"This can be either remand prison #1 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where death convicts are usually kept, or the remand prison of the KGB where Kavaliou was kept. "It is necessary to find out who had conducted the execution in order to plan future activities and find from whom to demand answers," said Mr. Kisliak.

According to him, the next step will be the demand to reveal the place of Kavaliou's burial. He also stated that human rights defenders were going to demand the annulment of the legal provision, according to which relatives of death convicts were not issued with their bodies.

Bear in mind that 15 people died and 315 were injured as a result of the explosion at the metro station "Kastrychnitskaya" in Minsk on 11 April 2011. Dzmitry Kanavalau was charged with the commitment of the terrorist act and Uladzislau Kavaliou was declared his accomplice. The both of them were citizens of Vitsebsk. On 30 November they were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court.

On 10 December 2012 Belarusian human rights defenders awarded Liubou Kavaliova the title "Human rights defender of the year" for the selfless struggle for her son's good name. She was also declared "Person of the year 2012 in Vitsebsk" according to the results of the voting at "People's News of Vitsebsk" website.