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Belarus Marks Anniversary Of Subway Bombing


A girl places candles at an impromptu memorial to victims of the Minsk metro bombing, which killed 15 people last year. (file photo)
A girl places candles at an impromptu memorial to victims of the Minsk metro bombing, which killed 15 people last year. (file photo)
MINSK -- Belarus is marking the first anniversary of the Minsk subway bombing that killed 15 and wounded several hundred people on April 11 last year.

At the exact time of the blast a memorial is to be unveiled outside the station where the bomb exploded.

A requiem service is to be held later in a church in central Minsk.

The attack last year was the worst since Soviet times.

Two 26-year-old men were found guilty of carrying out the bombing and several earlier explosions but the speed of the trial and the apparent lack of a motive raised questions about their guilt among rights activists.

The European Union and the Council of Europe had urged Belarus, the only country in Europe which still enforces the death penalty, not to carry out the executions.

Both men were put to death last month.

They were killed with a single bullet to the back of the head, as prescribed under Belarusian law.

With reporting by AFP
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