The mother of Uladzislaw Kavaylow, one of the two young men executed in the subway bombing case this past spring, complained on Friday to Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk about the refusal of the Committee for State Security (KGB) to give her the son’s jail notes.
Earlier this year, Ms. Kavalyow formally requested the chief of the KGB detention center in Minsk and KGB Chairman Vadzim Zaytsaw to give her the notes made by her son during his stay in the jail, but received no reply.
In her letter to the prosecutor general, Ms. Kavalyow said that the KGB officials were required by the constitution's Article 40 to reply to her requests but had failed to do so. "Even a refusal to consider an appeal must be motivated in writing," she said.
Article 40 of the Constitution says: "Everyone shall have the right to send individual or collective appeals to state bodies. State bodies, as well as civil servants shall consider an appeal and provide a reply within the period set by law. A refusal to consider an appeal that has been submitted shall be motivated in writing".
"My son’s notes that he made in the courtroom and during the meetings with his lawyer do not contain state secrets, as they were read out at the trial. However, the yellow folder that had contained the notes was empty when they gave it to me," Ms. Kavalyow said.
As a result of their trial held between September 15 and November 30, 2011, Mr. Kavalyow and his friend Dzmitry Kanavalaw were convicted of two 2005 bomb explosions in Vitsyebsk, a bomb attack during an open-air Independence Day concert in Minsk in July 2008 and the subway bombing in April 2011.
The Supreme Court of Belarus found Mr. Kanavalaw guilty of committing the explosions and Mr. Kavalyow was found guilty of being accomplice to the crimes. Both were sentenced to death.
Mr. Kavalyow applied for a presidential pardon in early December, while Mr. Kanavalaw decided against doing so, according to authorities.
On March 14, it became known that Alyaksandr Lukashenka had denied clemency to the men. Three days later, the ONT television network announced that Messrs. Kavalyow and Kanavalaw had been executed.
