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Belarus indicts four people in foiled coup plot - security service

"They are all making full confessions and cooperating with the investigation," the State Security Committee representative stressed

MINSK, April 21. /TASS/. The investigation has officially indicted four detainees for taking part in a coup plot in Belarus to seize power, head of the investigation department at the State Security Committee (KGB) Konstantin Bychek said Wednesday.

"The four detained persons have been indicted under Part 1 of Article 357 of the [Belarusian] Criminal Code, plot to seize power in an unconstitutional way. They are all making full confessions and cooperating with the investigation," the service representative stressed.

Belarusian President Lukashenko announced on April 17 that opposition politician Grigory Kostusev, political analyst Alexander Feduta and lawyer Yuri Zenkovich had plotted an assassination attempt on him and his sons. He placed responsibility for the plot on US special services and US leaders. According to Chief of the Belarusian KGB Ivan Tertel, "the plotters planned a coup for this summer, June or July."

Later on, the Public Relations Center of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that FSB officers had foiled the unlawful activity of dual Belarusian-American citizen Yuri Zenkovich and Belarusian national Alexander Feduta in a special operation with the republic’s KGB. According to the FSB, the persons in custody were plotting a military coup in Belarus via a "color revolution" scenario, involving local and Ukrainian nationalists, in addition to physically eliminating President Lukashenko.

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