Belarus Executes Minsk Bombers

Belarus has executed both men convicted of a Minsk metro bombing that killed 15 people in the nation's worst attack since its post-Soviet independence, state television reported on Sunday.

The report came a day after the sister of one of the two men, Vladislav Kovalyov, who had pleaded not guilty to acting as an accomplice, had told AFP that authorities had informed her of her brother's execution by gunshot.

On Sunday state television reported that Dmitry Konovalov, who was convicted of carrying out the April 11 attack, had also been executed.

Konovalov did not plead for clemency and his family never spoke to reporters during the high-profile trial, which was covered extensively on Belarus state television and was accompanied by a new state crackdown on the opposition.

Both executions were carried out on Friday, the state television report said.

The blast struck a busy metro station near the office of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the nation of nearly 10 million people with an iron grip for almost 18 years.

The attack was immediately blamed by the authoritarian president on foreign and domestic enemies, leading to new restrictions on people's right to protest and other restrictions against groups opposed to his regime.

The quick probe and lack of motives behind the two 25-year-old factory workers' attack sparked accusations that the tragedy was a plot by the security services to justify a crackdown against Lukashenko's political foes.

Lukashenko on Wednesday refused to grant clemency to the two men.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday urged Belarus not to carry out the executions, calling for Minsk to enter a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

In a statement Saturday, she said she "strongly condemns" the execution.

Belarus, which has grown increasingly isolated from the West, is the last country in Europe to administer the death penalty, although the practice is highly secretive and no official statistics exist.