MINSK, Belarus, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A decision to impose the death penalty for the accused perpetrators of an April attack on a metro station in Belarus is symbolic, the mother of an accused said.
A court Wednesday sentenced Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyova to death for an April bombing of a subway in Minsk that killed 15 people and left 200 injured.
Belarus is the only European country that has a death penalty.
Lyubov Kovalyova, Vladislav Kovalyova's mother, told London newspaper The Independent the trial was a farce.
"The court case was purely symbolic, everything had already been decided," she was quoted as saying.
She said state-appointed lawyers refused to meet with her and several other lawyers she contacted were afraid to challenge state authorities in court.
Alexander Lukashenko, the only president an independent Belarus has had, allegedly said before the court delivered its verdict that the accused should receive "the strictest punishment."
Minsk has been criticized for political repression. An opposition figure in the country was denied a permit to have a protest that would have entailed the protester breathing deeply.
Kovalyova, in a letter, pleaded for mercy from Lukashenko.
"I beg you to save my son," her letter read. "You are the only person who can do so."
