:00:03. > :00:05.capital Minsk, killing 15 people and injuring many more. John
:00:05. > :00:08.Sweeney investigates the circumstances around the arrest,
:00:08. > :00:15.trial and execution of the two men convicted of carrying out the
:00:15. > :00:22.bombing. When you take the night train to
:00:22. > :00:31.galleries, you leave 21st century Europe and go backwards in time. --
:00:31. > :00:35.Belarus. You travel towards a save it tyranny and torture, a land
:00:35. > :00:40.where people disappear. I'm going undercover. Crossing the border at
:00:40. > :00:49.midnight. My papers scrutinised as they would have been at checkpoint
:00:49. > :00:59.Charlie. In Belarus the eternal flame burns in memory of Stalin's
:00:59. > :01:01.
:01:01. > :01:05.great victory over the Nazis. Here, they still do step. It seems
:01:05. > :01:14.peaceful, but last year the capital's Metro was rocked by a
:01:14. > :01:24.bomb. 15 people were killed. This is where the bombing happened. The
:01:24. > :01:45.
:01:45. > :01:53.question is, who did it? Meet the President, Alexander
:01:53. > :01:58.Lukashenko. He calls himself, you could translate, big daddy. He
:01:58. > :02:07.started out as the boss of a pig farm. They say he beat up his
:02:07. > :02:17.workers. Here is the Mini Me, the next president staff in the ballot.
:02:17. > :02:18.
:02:18. > :02:23.His younger son. He is a victim of big daddy's monomania. He is
:02:23. > :02:33.escorting his father to become president again. Eyrie is meeting
:02:33. > :02:33.
:02:33. > :02:38.the Pope. -- here he is. Doing an arms deal with the then Russian
:02:38. > :02:48.President, the Boy With the Golden Gun. Giving revolutionary support
:02:48. > :02:53.to Hugo Chavez. It is a dynasty in the making. The darkest place big
:02:53. > :03:02.daddy took Nikolai is here, the Metro in Minsk, a few hours after a
:03:02. > :03:06.bomb went off in April last year, killing 15. Within 48 hours
:03:06. > :03:10.Alexander Lukashenko went on television to thank the KGB for
:03:10. > :03:20.capturing the bombers and vowed they would face the most extreme
:03:20. > :03:21.
:03:21. > :03:30.punishment. State TV showed the arrest of the suspects they called
:03:30. > :03:36.terrorists. The alleged bomber, Dima Konovalov, did not want to
:03:36. > :03:45.give up his name. His flatmate and alleged accomplice, Vladislav
:03:45. > :03:50.Kovalyov, was more forthcoming. One month after the bomb, the Secretary
:03:50. > :03:58.General of Interpol, Ronald K Noble arrived in Minsk for a briefing on
:03:58. > :04:03.the terrorists. Noble praised the state's investigation. I can tell
:04:03. > :04:08.all the citizens, this case was solved so quickly because of the
:04:08. > :04:11.high professionalism of the police and officials and the Ministry of
:04:11. > :04:17.Internal Affairs and other ministries. Because of the
:04:17. > :04:24.technology and CCTV you have in place. Four months later the trial
:04:24. > :04:32.started of the two accused. The men proclaimed a guilty were duly found
:04:32. > :04:42.guilty. Some in Belarus were not convinced by what they say was a
:04:42. > :04:43.
:04:43. > :04:52.21st century show trial. The bomb had gone off at rush-hour at
:04:52. > :05:02.Oktyabrskaya Station, the busiest stock. It was Belarus's 7/7. This
:05:02. > :05:02.
:05:02. > :05:07.is where the bombing happened. The question is, who did it? One woman
:05:07. > :05:12.is running a lonely campaign to prove the two bombers were innocent.
:05:12. > :05:18.We drive three hours towards the Russian border, her home is being
:05:18. > :05:28.washed -- watched by the KGB. She has told us the coast is clear for
:05:28. > :05:32.
:05:32. > :05:38.now. She is the mother of Vlad, the alleged accomplice. TRANSLATION:
:05:38. > :05:48.The court has not a single piece of proof of guilt. My son was dragged
:05:48. > :05:55.
:05:55. > :06:00.into this. Dima Konovalov's statement was given under torture.
:06:00. > :06:05.The boys had been interrogated, by 5pm they had already confessed.
:06:05. > :06:09.They were interrogated without lawyers. Over that time they were
:06:09. > :06:19.beaten. The boys had no choice. Otherwise they would have been
:06:19. > :06:24.
:06:24. > :06:34.beaten more and more until they confessed. The two men were paraded
:06:34. > :06:35.
:06:35. > :06:39.on TV, confessing to their crimes from a psychiatric ward. He came
:06:39. > :06:44.into the room with a plastic remote control in his hands, he pressed it
:06:44. > :06:51.a couple of times and gave it to me to hold. He said it was a detonator
:06:51. > :07:01.for the bomb. Why would anyone confess to a bombing they had no
:07:01. > :07:05.
:07:05. > :07:15.part in? In December 2010 elections were held. Alexander Lukashenko
:07:15. > :07:24.claimed a victory with four out of five votes. The opposition cried
:07:24. > :07:34.foul, aged hit the streets. -- fascia. A crackdown started, the
:07:34. > :07:34.
:07:34. > :07:40.700 people arrested, including seven presidential candidates.
:07:40. > :07:45.Opposition activist Vlad Kobets was picked up by the KGB that night. He
:07:45. > :07:55.has fled the country, but he drew us a map of how to find what he
:07:55. > :08:05.
:08:05. > :08:12.claims is the regime's torture centre. INAUDIBLE.
:08:12. > :08:19.Because I'm here undercover we cannot film openly. I follow his
:08:19. > :08:26.directions and go for a stroll along the chapel's main street.
:08:26. > :08:33.After one building you will see next this place... INAUDIBLE.
:08:33. > :08:43.is the KGB head office. Very grand. Behind the fence the columns, a
:08:43. > :08:48.secret prison. -- fancy. You cannot see it from the street, you can
:08:48. > :08:56.from Google Earth. They call it the Amerikanka, after a prison that
:08:56. > :09:04.Stalin's secret police admired. Where were they held on the night
:09:04. > :09:11.of their rest? In Amerikanka. They were held at the KGB isolation unit,
:09:11. > :09:21.the Amerikanka. What is it like being a guest of the Amerikanka?
:09:21. > :09:24.
:09:24. > :09:28.When I first got there somebody told me to look at the ceiling. You
:09:28. > :09:38.can see what looks like the lead of a cotton, it looks like you have
:09:38. > :09:41.
:09:41. > :09:47.been buried alive. -- lid of a coffin. The guards demand
:09:47. > :09:55.submission from the prisoners. had to walk like this. Hands behind
:09:55. > :10:02.our back and head down. We were forbidden from racing our heads
:10:02. > :10:07.under any circumstances. Night and day, guards wearing masks would
:10:07. > :10:16.enter the cell and drag the prisoners out. What did you hear at
:10:16. > :10:21.night? You could hear shouts. Every time the men prisoners were taken
:10:21. > :10:31.down for exercise, you could hear them being tortured. You could hear
:10:31. > :10:34.
:10:34. > :10:40.the crackles of electricity and the blows of batons. You are taken
:10:40. > :10:47.downstairs to a room, lined up against a wall, your legs stretched
:10:48. > :10:54.apart. Your head is lowered. After that they undress you one by one.
:10:54. > :10:59.All the rest stand there as you are stripped naked. Another inmate drew
:10:59. > :11:09.us a picture of the torture. He is still in Belarus and we are
:11:09. > :11:26.
:11:26. > :11:30.protecting his identity. Urinated. It is not very pleasant.
:11:30. > :11:40.opposition in Belarus say they were tortured by being forced to strip
:11:40. > :11:41.
:11:41. > :11:46.naked in freezing conditions. We go to a store in north London where
:11:46. > :11:53.the temperature is minus 24 degrees. The guards forced the prisoners to
:11:54. > :12:00.strip naked and stand in this position, spreadeagled, in minus 20
:12:00. > :12:05.degrees. There was snow outside. In the jargon of torture, this is the
:12:05. > :12:11.stress position. You might not think standing like this is torture,
:12:11. > :12:16.out in the cold, guards in balaclavas kicking your legs apart,
:12:16. > :12:26.electric cattle prods, all this several times a day and night and
:12:26. > :12:38.
:12:38. > :12:48.day... No doubt this is torture. I Of the prisoners had to endure that
:12:48. > :12:54.for 40 minutes. I lasted 40 seconds. Is it possible that the KGB
:12:54. > :12:57.tortured confessions out of the two bombers. Other prisoners at the
:12:57. > :13:04.camp that night said screams came from the cells were the men were
:13:04. > :13:12.being held. At the middle of the night an ambulance was called. We
:13:12. > :13:18.cannot verify torture, but we can verify timing. The state said that
:13:18. > :13:28.they planted the bomb at 756 and then walk time arriving at 1,800. I
:13:28. > :13:36.
:13:36. > :13:41.put that to the test. I left the Tube station 26 minutes ago. The
:13:41. > :13:51.government's case, to meet she made this journey by walking for four
:13:51. > :13:52.
:13:52. > :13:58.minutes. His lawyer in the white shirt studied going through the
:13:58. > :14:08.CCTV evidence from the man from Interpol. He began to pick more
:14:08. > :14:09.
:14:09. > :14:19.holes in the official version. The time, 1739, the bomber enters the
:14:19. > :14:21.
:14:21. > :14:31.Metro carrying a black bag. Watch the white mark on the back. Now you
:14:31. > :14:35.
:14:35. > :14:45.see the white mark? Seventeen 44, now you do not. There is something
:14:45. > :14:51.
:14:51. > :14:56.immediately and obviously wrong 1745, the bomber is hanging around.
:14:56. > :15:06.Another man walks past a man looks at him and be, sets off after him.
:15:06. > :15:14.
:15:14. > :15:21.It is as if he is taking directions. 1746, the bomber is apparently led
:15:21. > :15:27.by another man turning abruptly in front of him in the tunnel. 1748,
:15:27. > :15:37.the bomb of walking down to the platform where the bomb goes off,
:15:37. > :15:39.
:15:39. > :15:49.see the back, the white mark his back. -- is back. All of these
:15:49. > :15:49.
:15:49. > :15:59.questions about the CCTV were blocked by the judge. One striking
:15:59. > :16:01.
:16:01. > :16:11.clash of evidence the defence wanted to run, the bomber seems
:16:11. > :16:13.
:16:13. > :16:18.tall while while Dima is short. To win compared. TRANSLATION: The man
:16:18. > :16:27.filmed at the back and my son do not match. They are different types
:16:27. > :16:35.and build. The man with the back and him a different people.
:16:35. > :16:42.forensic evidence at all. Linking either man with the bomb.
:16:42. > :16:49.TRANSLATION: Know, there is no evidence. Four mac Crowe months
:16:49. > :16:59.before the trial, even Interpol boss pointed the finger at an
:16:59. > :17:06.
:17:06. > :17:10.unexploded bomb at Dima. Full of the fingerprints match the man
:17:10. > :17:16.arrested for the attack on April 11th. Completely different
:17:16. > :17:19.techniques but the same terrorist. He says these independently
:17:19. > :17:25.confirmed the matching fingerprints but Interpol state that both sets
:17:25. > :17:35.of prints came from Belarus. Should anyone trust the forensic service
:17:35. > :17:37.
:17:37. > :17:45.of a dictatorship? Interpol's website links to a film of the
:17:45. > :17:50.Metro made about the railways station about our Rhoose state TV.
:17:50. > :17:58.It does not address any defence questions about the evidence. But
:17:58. > :18:03.it does show him being given a tour of the crime scene and Thierry is
:18:03. > :18:10.praising the investigation. It was solved pro -- very quickly because
:18:10. > :18:17.of the professionalism of the police. He got into the traps set
:18:17. > :18:26.up. There was petrol on my face and then fire. I was all on fire. A
:18:26. > :18:31.living torch. Stop here, look again. If the living torch was 14 in 2004,
:18:31. > :18:38.he would be 22 now. He looks a lot older and has no obvious burn scars
:18:38. > :18:44.on his face. It is hard to see why Interpol thinks this film, evidence
:18:44. > :18:50.of anything other than Belarus state TV being at home in George
:18:50. > :18:54.Orwell's 1984. When the Secretary General precis authorities for
:18:54. > :18:59.solving the crime so quickly and called him a terrorist, he did so
:18:59. > :19:06.four months before the trial. Did he abandon the presumption of
:19:06. > :19:12.innocence and opened himself up to the charge of being Alexander
:19:12. > :19:16.Lukashenko's useful idiot. security forces in Belarus as you
:19:16. > :19:22.know are very professional, well trained, but they are part of the
:19:23. > :19:29.repressive machinery of Alexander Lukashenko's regime. I would not
:19:29. > :19:33.like to be quoted as praising a security force in Belarus. I would
:19:33. > :19:39.not want to be praising them for coming to a conclusion before the
:19:39. > :19:46.evidence has been presented in an open and fair way. The problem with
:19:47. > :19:50.Belarus is that nothing is open and transparent. Mr Noble declined to
:19:50. > :19:53.be interviewed for this programme but a spokesman for Interpol denied
:19:54. > :19:59.that the presumption of innocence was breached and disputed our
:19:59. > :20:02.analysis of the evidence. In a statement Interpol said it must
:20:02. > :20:08.have vocal concluded that the investigation was professionally
:20:08. > :20:12.conducted and, that the arrest saw the case of someone professionally
:20:12. > :20:16.responsible for the bombing. Advancing one-sided false claims
:20:16. > :20:23.about murderous terrorist conduct can only undermine public
:20:23. > :20:27.confidence in the media. The trial judge dismissed the different case
:20:28. > :20:32.-- defence case and in March this year, they were shot with a bullet
:20:32. > :20:35.to the back of the head. The European Union and the British
:20:35. > :20:45.government condemned the executions in question the standard of
:20:45. > :20:49.evidence and the fairness of the trial. The regime is in the dock
:20:49. > :20:57.for the execution of two innocent men. The question remains, they did
:20:57. > :21:02.not bomb the Metro, who did? One of the men in the shadows on the CCTV,
:21:02. > :21:07.who in a police state can organise a bon? Who has the track record of
:21:07. > :21:17.political violence? One cannot rule out the Belarus State murdering its
:21:17. > :21:18.
:21:18. > :21:23.own people. I asked him what keeps her going? Trans Mac it is not
:21:23. > :21:33.bravery. But his passion for the life of my son. I knew he was not
:21:33. > :21:43.
:21:43. > :21:49.guilty. I knew Dima was not guilty. Able to do anything. The regime
:21:49. > :21:56.will not tell her where her son lies buried. And then she said now
:21:56. > :22:00.they are torturing me. On my last day in the capital, I visited a
:22:00. > :22:07.museum full of discarded statues. One in particular remains hidden