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On Wednesday, a court sentenced to death two Byelorussians convicted of carrying out a bomb attack in the Minsk Metro that killed 15 people, with no option for appeal. Dmitri Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov were found guilty of detonating an explosive device at a subway station on 11 April. The blast also injured more than 200 people. The Supreme Court’s ruling is final and may not be appealed. Persons sentenced to death may only appeal to President Lukashenko for pardon. Supreme Court presiding judge Alexander Fedortsov said that the perpetrator Konovalov had repeatedly committed acts of terrorism, purposely seeking to cause the maximum amount of damage. Kovalyov, as an accomplice to the crime, had known about Konovalov’s practises for years, failing to report them to law enforcement agencies, while in the subway attack his complicity was “direct”, the court said. Both defendants were mentally fit and fully aware of what they were about to do at the moment of committing their crime, the judge said.
Throughout his presidency, Aleksandr Lukashenko has only once granted a pardon, commuting a death sentence to a 20-year prison term in 1996. No one has ever publicly announced exactly who received that pardon. Konovalov and Kovalyov are to be executed by firing squad. The date of their execution hasn’t yet been set. Belarus remains the only European country that allows the death penalty. Last year, two people received death sentences, which were carried out.
30 November 2011
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/crime/20111130/169181760.html
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Editor’s Note:
The Church generally teaches against the death penalty, but it doesn’t rule it out entirely. The Minsk Metro bombers, in essence, attacked the whole community with their bombing. Therefore, they’re obviously “exceptions that prove the rule”. I’d volunteer for the firing squad of these two losers with no hesitation. I’d sleep well afterwards, too… the carrying out of a legit death sentence is no sin.
It’s instructive to compare the number of death sentences in Byelorussia as compared to Texas, especially as the Republican slimers never miss an opportunity to attack Byelorussia, as Byelorussia stands tall for Social Justice and Socialism. There’s 9.6 million Byelorussians as compared to 25 million in Texas. That’s to say, Byelorussia is roughly 40 percent the size of Texas in population. If all things were equal, if there were two executions in Byelorussia, there’d be five executions in Texas. Surprise, surprise! “Democratic Free Market” Texas had 17 executions… a rate 340 percent HIGHER than nasty ol’ Socialist Byelorussia! It means that Rick Perry’s a bloodthirsty ravening Visigoth in comparison with Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Why is Texas’ rate of execution so much higher than not only Byelorussia, but of almost any other jurisdiction with the death penalty? Firstly, of the 17 death sentences in Texas, only six involved white Anglo inmates (roughly 35 percent of the number). Hmm… white Anglos made up 45 percent of the general population, thus, making them under-represented in the death penalty universe (having an index of 78 (out of 100)). On the other hand, Hispanics are 38 percent and Blacks are 12 percent of the general population, but they’re over-represented in the death penalty sample, Blacks making up 30 percent (index of 250) and Hispanics making up six (35 percent, index of 92). The figures don’t lie. Texas courts are fairly lenient to Anglo whites…. somewhat fair to Hispanics (but more unfair than to Anglos)… definitely unfriendly to Black defendants. That’s what the figures tell us… and no amount of squalling by Rod Dreher, Jessie Cone, Joseph Honeycutt, or John Whiteford can change things.
Why is the political culture of Texas so violent as compared to that of Byelorussia? Firstly, Texas is suffused with Radicalism, in particular, Free Market Libertarian Nihilism, one of the most brutal and nasty ideologies ever thought up by man. Texas is NOT “conservative”, not by any definition. Rick Perry, Tom DeLay, and George W Bush bear no resemblance to Edmund Burke, Benjamin Disreali, Patrice de Mac-Mahon, Otto von Bismarck, John Diefenbaker, and Pyotr Stolypin… all of whom were TRUE conservatives. Besides this, Anglo Texas was born in sectarian violence in the early 19th century. Texas as-we-know-it came about because Mexico abolished slavery, and the Proddie Anglo settlers would have none of it, they set themselves up against the duly-recognised and legitimate Mexican authorities and the Mexican law (which was based on the Roman Law of Emperor Justinian’s Civil Code). Anglo Texas was born in juvenile, self-centred, and lawless rebellion against its rightful civil authority (sounds all too much like 1776 in the “Thirteen Colonies”, doesn’t it?). Trust me, that isn’t “conservative” in anyone’s book.
In short, Texas is a textbook illustration of a Radical group claiming another’s territory as Lebensraum. Had the fascists won World War II, they would have done to Byelorussia, the Ukraine, and Western Russia what the Anglos did in Texas. They would have stolen the land from the rightful owners, they would have alienated the names of the physical features and towns, and they would have set themselves up as a “superior” ruling caste…. the only difference being that Jews, Slavs, and Roma would play the parts that Blacks, Mexicans, and Indians played in Texas. There’s no difference between Erich Koch and Sam Houston… except for one detail… Houston was a “winner” and Koch was a “loser”. “Winners” get to write history. The “Winners” write about the “Losers”, who have no say in the resulting narrative. I trust that you can see the difference.
Socialist Byelorussia resorts to the death penalty less often than does “Free Market Democratic” Texas. I think that it shows all objective people which system is worthy and decent, and which system is inhumane and indecent. A posturing jackass on Wikipedia wrote the following untrue and slobbering drivel:
Under Lukashenko’s rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line with international law and whose regime is considered to grossly violate human rights.
The facts say otherwise. That snippet describes Texas under the grinding boot of the oligarch-run Republican Party, NOT Byelorussia under Socialism. Let the objective facts speak… let history judge. Ponder this… the Republicans want to spread the brutish violence and Know-Nothing ignorant bigotry of Texas throughout these United States. Don’t let it happen…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Albany NY
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