Liubou Kavaliova recently received a lot of letters and cards from people who, like her, do not believe in the guilt of her son, and believe that his trial was unfair and punishment was unnecessarily cruel.

Cards and letters are coming from different countries, among them there is also the message of the international human rights organisation Amnesty International, and condolences from ordinary people, people in Belarus and abroad. Those who address Kavaliou family these days, wish the strength of spirit for mother and sister of executed Uladzislau Kavaliou, express hope that in the future the metro bombing case will be considered objectively, that the real guilty will suffer the and the innocent will be acquitted .

Liubou Kavaliova recalls that she saw her son alive for the last time on 11 March last year. Then she and her daughter were urgently summoned to a meeting with Uladzislau in the KGB jail. The administration of the jail did not allow to move the meeting to the day after. During the meeting the prison officials were expressly polite to the visitors… This and a number of other facts makes the mother believe that Uladzislau Kavaliou was not shot on 15 March as it was written in an official statement, but before. It is possible that it was done on the same day of the date.

Liubou Kavaliova struggles to get back her executed son’s body
Mother of the executed repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to return her the body of her son, who she believes was wrongly accused and wrongly convicted, or at least to show her a place where he is buried. But in response the authorities gave only runarounds referencing to the clauses of the Belarusian legislation, according to which a body of the executed is not given to relatives, and his final resting place will forever remain a secret.

Kavaliova is sure that this legal requirement is an abuse and torture of families of the executed: “Before they humiliated Ulad, beat him, forcing to give the investigators necessary evidence.Now they torment me. I believe that it is necessary to ensure that I have my son’s body back. It is also necessary to abolish the death penalty, as it is irreversible: even in the case where there are new evidence of the innocence of a man, he cannot be brought back… In addition, the last wish of Uladzislau still remains unfulfilled: he asked to keep his records, which he made during the trial and in KGB jail. But the yellow folder, which contained the records, after the execution of the sentence was sent to us empty. I do not know who and for what purposes conceals those records. They disappeared somewhere in the KGB prison, together with the warrant which the administration had to sign – with these documents I could do more on behalf of my son. But they didnot allow it.”

Human rights defenders continue to ask questions
At a press conference held on 13 March in Minsk on the anniversary of execution of the sentence, human rights defender Raman Kisliak noted that now it is important to find out what structure carried out the death sentence against Kanavalau and Kavaliou

“It could be either the detention facility № 1 of Interior Ministry, which usually deals with prisoners sentenced to death or the KGB detention center, which contained Kavaliou.“Finding those who enforced the sentence is necessary in order to understand how to proceed and from whom to seek answers,” – said Kisliak.

The next step, he said, would be the requirement to disclose the burial place of Kavaliou.Kisliak also said that human rights defenders are going to struggle for elimination of the provision of to the Belarusian legislation which stipulates that the body of the executed is not given back to the relatives.

Even now the family of another executed avoids contacts
As for the family of second executed on charges of terrorism, Dzmitry Kanavalau, according to human rights activist Pavel Levinau, they still avoid   any contact.Volunteer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Pavel Levinau believes that parents of Kanavalau rejects contacts because of the threats from the security services:

– Almost the whole family of Kanavalau after the arrest of Dzmitry, that is his older brother and father were taken under guard and detained as I remember for about three months. Only his mother remained free and was intimidated by the authorities. I can only imagine what kind of psychological pressure was put on the mother, possibly psychological and physical pressure was put on the relatives of Dzmitry Kanavalau. Maybe they even were promised something, that if they keep quiet, the son will not get a hard sentence.  

During the whole time of the trial before the execution, parents of Dzmitry Kanavalau were under the protection of plain cloth men.

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For the fight against the death penalty in Belarus, with the desire to defend the good name of her son Liubou Kavaliova was named “Human Rights Defender of the Year”: on 10 December 2012 the Belarusian human rights organizations have honored her with this title. According to the result of the vote on “Vitsebsk Popular News” web-site Liubou Kavaliova became the “Vitsebsk Person of the Year – 2012”.

As a result of bombing in Minsk metro station “Kastrychnitskaya” on 11 April 2011 15 people were killed and 315 – injured.Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavaliou were accused of committing the terrorist act. Both were residents of Vitsebsk. On 30 November 2011 the Supreme Court sentenced the young men to death.

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