Minsk Regional Court starts trial of attempted coup d'etat

29 июля 2022

The first court session in the case of an attempted coup d'etat began July 29 in Minsk Regional Court. The hearings were first held in private, but continued in open mode. There are five people accused in the case. They are all familiar figures: lawyer with dual citizenship Yury Zenkovich, political scientist Alexander Feduta and leader of the opposition party Grigory Kostusev. They are accused of conspiracy to seize state power in an unconstitutional manner. Two more defendants, Olga Golubovich and Denis Kravchuk, are accused of active participation in group actions that grossly violate public order. In addition, Zenkovich is incriminated with the creation and leadership of an extremist formation, calls for the seizure of state power and incitement of social hatred and discord. According to the materials of the General Prosecutor's Office the examination of the case showed that the preliminary investigation was carried out comprehensively, fully and objectively and the charges were substantiated by the collected evidence.

"Silence" was the name of the operation for overthrow of the state power in Belarus. Its participants under the patronage of Western intelligence agencies had been preparing for an armed mutiny for more than six months. The materials of the case show that a group of plotters, who were preparing a military coup in Belarus, was ready to take the most radical measures - to eliminate the President and his family, to neutralize the mobile power structures, to occupy important state buildings in the capital and to declare a regime of change of power.

As a reminder, the criminal case was investigated by the investigative department of the KGB. Before the trial all of the accused were in custody.