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Crisis in Belarus

Lukashenko vows to publish fresh evidence on foiled assassination conspiracy in Belarus

According to the country's president, foreign intelligence agencies were surprised that their Belarusian counterparts had been able to carry out such an operation

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

MINSK, May 7. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has promised to make public new factual information as part of the case of an attempted coup in Belarus.

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"What you - journalists and intelligence agents - who carried out these operations and showed the public is nothing compared to what is going to happen next. You will be horrified at what we are going to show you," BelTA news agency quotes him as saying on Friday.

The head of state noted that people who were not deeply immersed in the situation and did not understand these processes did not take those in custody seriously. "Just some philosophers, old people. How could they do anything?" Lukashenko went on to say. "They would not do it. We will show you who planned to do that and who the actual perpetrators were. Let me emphasize once again: you will be horrified by that."

According to the Belarusian president, foreign intelligence agencies were surprised that their Belarusian counterparts had been able to carry out such an operation. "The Russians say that this happens once in the lifetime of intelligence services, when a conspiracy is foiled well in advance," he said. "Nobody was engaged in falsehoods: we demonstrate rock-solid facts. But the most important thing is that they are giving confessions."

On April 17, Lukashenko said that opposition figure Grigory Kostusev, political scientist Alexander Fetuda and lawyer Yury Zenkovich were planning an attempt on his life and the lives of his sons and were plotting a coup. He blamed Washington’s intelligence services and the American leadership for organizing the assassination conspiracy.

According to Belarusian investigators, the attempt to stage this potential coup was bankrolled from abroad, the plotters maintained close ties with terrorist groups. A criminal case was opened under the section of conspiracy to seize state power. Nine individuals were charged with plotting a coup in Belarus. The Belarusian State Security Committee said that the detainees were giving confessions and cooperating with the investigation.

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