Bombing Belarus? Our World

capital Minsk, killing 15 people and injuring many more. John

Sweeney investigates the circumstances around the arrest,

trial and execution of the two men convicted of carrying out the

bombing. When you take the night train to

galleries, you leave 21st century Europe and go backwards in time. --

Belarus. You travel towards a save it tyranny and torture, a land

where people disappear. I'm going undercover. Crossing the border at

midnight. My papers scrutinised as they would have been at checkpoint

Charlie. In Belarus the eternal flame burns in memory of Stalin's

great victory over the Nazis. Here, they still do step. It seems

peaceful, but last year the capital's Metro was rocked by a

bomb. 15 people were killed. This is where the bombing happened. The

question is, who did it? Meet the President, Alexander

Lukashenko. He calls himself, you could translate, big daddy. He

started out as the boss of a pig farm. They say he beat up his

workers. Here is the Mini Me, the next president staff in the ballot.

His younger son. He is a victim of big daddy's monomania. He is

escorting his father to become president again. Eyrie is meeting

the Pope. -- here he is. Doing an arms deal with the then Russian

President, the Boy With the Golden Gun. Giving revolutionary support

to Hugo Chavez. It is a dynasty in the making. The darkest place big

daddy took Nikolai is here, the Metro in Minsk, a few hours after a

bomb went off in April last year, killing 15. Within 48 hours

Alexander Lukashenko went on television to thank the KGB for

capturing the bombers and vowed they would face the most extreme

punishment. State TV showed the arrest of the suspects they called

terrorists. The alleged bomber, Dima Konovalov, did not want to

give up his name. His flatmate and alleged accomplice, Vladislav

Kovalyov, was more forthcoming. One month after the bomb, the Secretary

General of Interpol, Ronald K Noble arrived in Minsk for a briefing on

the terrorists. Noble praised the state's investigation. I can tell

all the citizens, this case was solved so quickly because of the

high professionalism of the police and officials and the Ministry of

Internal Affairs and other ministries. Because of the

technology and CCTV you have in place. Four months later the trial

started of the two accused. The men proclaimed a guilty were duly found

guilty. Some in Belarus were not convinced by what they say was a

21st century show trial. The bomb had gone off at rush-hour at

Oktyabrskaya Station, the busiest stock. It was Belarus's 7/7. This

is where the bombing happened. The question is, who did it? One woman

is running a lonely campaign to prove the two bombers were innocent.

We drive three hours towards the Russian border, her home is being

washed -- watched by the KGB. She has told us the coast is clear for

now. She is the mother of Vlad, the alleged accomplice. TRANSLATION:

The court has not a single piece of proof of guilt. My son was dragged

into this. Dima Konovalov's statement was given under torture.

The boys had been interrogated, by 5pm they had already confessed.

They were interrogated without lawyers. Over that time they were

beaten. The boys had no choice. Otherwise they would have been

beaten more and more until they confessed. The two men were paraded

on TV, confessing to their crimes from a psychiatric ward. He came

into the room with a plastic remote control in his hands, he pressed it

a couple of times and gave it to me to hold. He said it was a detonator

for the bomb. Why would anyone confess to a bombing they had no

part in? In December 2010 elections were held. Alexander Lukashenko

claimed a victory with four out of five votes. The opposition cried

foul, aged hit the streets. -- fascia. A crackdown started, the

700 people arrested, including seven presidential candidates.

Opposition activist Vlad Kobets was picked up by the KGB that night. He

has fled the country, but he drew us a map of how to find what he

claims is the regime's torture centre. INAUDIBLE.

Because I'm here undercover we cannot film openly. I follow his

directions and go for a stroll along the chapel's main street.

After one building you will see next this place... INAUDIBLE.

is the KGB head office. Very grand. Behind the fence the columns, a

secret prison. -- fancy. You cannot see it from the street, you can

from Google Earth. They call it the Amerikanka, after a prison that

Stalin's secret police admired. Where were they held on the night

of their rest? In Amerikanka. They were held at the KGB isolation unit,

the Amerikanka. What is it like being a guest of the Amerikanka?

When I first got there somebody told me to look at the ceiling. You

can see what looks like the lead of a cotton, it looks like you have

been buried alive. -- lid of a coffin. The guards demand

submission from the prisoners. had to walk like this. Hands behind

our back and head down. We were forbidden from racing our heads

under any circumstances. Night and day, guards wearing masks would

enter the cell and drag the prisoners out. What did you hear at

night? You could hear shouts. Every time the men prisoners were taken

down for exercise, you could hear them being tortured. You could hear

the crackles of electricity and the blows of batons. You are taken

downstairs to a room, lined up against a wall, your legs stretched

apart. Your head is lowered. After that they undress you one by one.

All the rest stand there as you are stripped naked. Another inmate drew

us a picture of the torture. He is still in Belarus and we are

protecting his identity. Urinated. It is not very pleasant.

opposition in Belarus say they were tortured by being forced to strip

naked in freezing conditions. We go to a store in north London where

the temperature is minus 24 degrees. The guards forced the prisoners to

strip naked and stand in this position, spreadeagled, in minus 20

degrees. There was snow outside. In the jargon of torture, this is the

stress position. You might not think standing like this is torture,

out in the cold, guards in balaclavas kicking your legs apart,

electric cattle prods, all this several times a day and night and

day... No doubt this is torture. I Of the prisoners had to endure that

for 40 minutes. I lasted 40 seconds. Is it possible that the KGB

tortured confessions out of the two bombers. Other prisoners at the

camp that night said screams came from the cells were the men were

being held. At the middle of the night an ambulance was called. We

cannot verify torture, but we can verify timing. The state said that

they planted the bomb at 756 and then walk time arriving at 1,800. I

put that to the test. I left the Tube station 26 minutes ago. The

government's case, to meet she made this journey by walking for four

minutes. His lawyer in the white shirt studied going through the

CCTV evidence from the man from Interpol. He began to pick more

holes in the official version. The time, 1739, the bomber enters the

Metro carrying a black bag. Watch the white mark on the back. Now you

see the white mark? Seventeen 44, now you do not. There is something

immediately and obviously wrong 1745, the bomber is hanging around.

Another man walks past a man looks at him and be, sets off after him.

It is as if he is taking directions. 1746, the bomber is apparently led

by another man turning abruptly in front of him in the tunnel. 1748,

the bomb of walking down to the platform where the bomb goes off,

see the back, the white mark his back. -- is back. All of these

questions about the CCTV were blocked by the judge. One striking

clash of evidence the defence wanted to run, the bomber seems

tall while while Dima is short. To win compared. TRANSLATION: The man

filmed at the back and my son do not match. They are different types

and build. The man with the back and him a different people.

forensic evidence at all. Linking either man with the bomb.

TRANSLATION: Know, there is no evidence. Four mac Crowe months

before the trial, even Interpol boss pointed the finger at an

unexploded bomb at Dima. Full of the fingerprints match the man

arrested for the attack on April 11th. Completely different

techniques but the same terrorist. He says these independently

confirmed the matching fingerprints but Interpol state that both sets

of prints came from Belarus. Should anyone trust the forensic service

of a dictatorship? Interpol's website links to a film of the

Metro made about the railways station about our Rhoose state TV.

It does not address any defence questions about the evidence. But

it does show him being given a tour of the crime scene and Thierry is

praising the investigation. It was solved pro -- very quickly because

of the professionalism of the police. He got into the traps set

up. There was petrol on my face and then fire. I was all on fire. A

living torch. Stop here, look again. If the living torch was 14 in 2004,

he would be 22 now. He looks a lot older and has no obvious burn scars

on his face. It is hard to see why Interpol thinks this film, evidence

of anything other than Belarus state TV being at home in George

Orwell's 1984. When the Secretary General precis authorities for

solving the crime so quickly and called him a terrorist, he did so

four months before the trial. Did he abandon the presumption of

innocence and opened himself up to the charge of being Alexander

Lukashenko's useful idiot. security forces in Belarus as you

know are very professional, well trained, but they are part of the

repressive machinery of Alexander Lukashenko's regime. I would not

like to be quoted as praising a security force in Belarus. I would

not want to be praising them for coming to a conclusion before the

evidence has been presented in an open and fair way. The problem with

Belarus is that nothing is open and transparent. Mr Noble declined to

be interviewed for this programme but a spokesman for Interpol denied

that the presumption of innocence was breached and disputed our

analysis of the evidence. In a statement Interpol said it must

have vocal concluded that the investigation was professionally

conducted and, that the arrest saw the case of someone professionally

responsible for the bombing. Advancing one-sided false claims

about murderous terrorist conduct can only undermine public

confidence in the media. The trial judge dismissed the different case

-- defence case and in March this year, they were shot with a bullet

to the back of the head. The European Union and the British

government condemned the executions in question the standard of

evidence and the fairness of the trial. The regime is in the dock

for the execution of two innocent men. The question remains, they did

not bomb the Metro, who did? One of the men in the shadows on the CCTV,

who in a police state can organise a bon? Who has the track record of

political violence? One cannot rule out the Belarus State murdering its

own people. I asked him what keeps her going? Trans Mac it is not

bravery. But his passion for the life of my son. I knew he was not

guilty. I knew Dima was not guilty. Able to do anything. The regime

will not tell her where her son lies buried. And then she said now

they are torturing me. On my last day in the capital, I visited a

museum full of discarded statues. One in particular remains hidden