Liubou Kavaliova received no answer as to which state organ is responsible for the execution of death verdicts
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- Liubou Kavaliova
Liubou Kavaliova, the mother of Uladzislau Kavaliou, charged with the terrorist act in Minsk metro, wants to know the details of the last minutes of the son's life, and considers the verdict as unfair. That's why she is trying to find which state agency executed the death verdict, issued to her son by the Supreme Court of Belarus.
That's why the woman filed appropriate addresses to several state organs at once. She had to do it consequently as her applications were forwarded from one agency to another.
"At first I wrote to the head of the State Security Committee (KGB), as far as Ulad had been kept there until the execution, and received a letter signed by Valery Vakulchyk that this issues was beyond the KGB competency and that I needed to apply to the Supreme Court as far as according to Article 175 of the Criminal-Executive Code this is the agency which received the information about the execution. However, the head of the Supreme Court Valery Kalinkovich also answered that it was beyond his competence and proposed me to apply to the Penal Department.
The Penal Department also sent me an answer with reference to Article 175. Here it was written that the "institution which implements the death verdict" must inform about it the court who had issued the verdict, and the court must inform the relatives. We received a notice from the Supreme Court, but we didn't manage to get any information as to which state agency is responsible for death executions. Everything is kept in secret! Everybody knows the order of the adoption of death verdicts, but nobody knows who and were executes the people. This is another secret protected by the Belarusian legislation," said Mrs. Kavaliova.
Before this, the woman applied to various state institutions, including the President, with the request to be issued with the body of her son (whom she considered as unfairly killed on the basis of unfounded accusations), or at least be informed about the place of his burial. However, she received only negative replies. She didn't receive any explanations concerning the disappearance of her son's notes concerning the court proceedings – they just disappeared at the KGB as if there was some secret information in them, though according to the law the belongings of death convicts must be passed to their relatives.
Liubou Kavaliova is going to continue her struggle for establishing the circumstances of the execution. For this sake she intends to appeal the received replies at higher instances.
The woman is a strong advocate of the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus: taking into account the possibility of mistakes during the investigation such kind of penalty looks unjustified and absurd because of its irreversibility. Mr. Kavaliova also believes that the death penalty is inadmissible in a civilized country as it brings sufferings both to convicts and their relatives, for whom the circumstances of the execution become an eternal secret.
