They are trying to make Russians the switchmen in the “bloody fireworks” case in Minsk
The trial of two Russian engineers, who have been in a Belarusian pre-trial detention center for 9 months, began today in the Moscow District Court of Minsk.
This was reported by Office Life, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Maximilian Sapronov and Konstantin Denisov are accused of explosions during the fireworks show in Minsk on July 3, 2019, because they are employees of the Piro-Ross company, which supplied shells for fireworks. As a result of the “bloody fireworks”, a woman was killed and 11 people were injured.
According to the prosecutor's indictment, Sapronov and Denisov are charged with modifying pyrotechnic products (PI), extending wires, and subjecting charges to mechanical stress, rolling them over a concrete base to reduce their diameter.
The third accused, the commander of the patrol company of the Minsk Military Commandant's Office, senior lieutenant Alexey Kruglik, who loaded the salute guns, partially admitted his guilt. By the way, unlike the Russians, he was not detained.
According to Kruglik, manipulations to adjust the caliber of charges, check unfired charges and reuse them have happened before. In addition, the charges that did not go off during the fireworks were used again. The reason is that charges are expensive and must be used sparingly. This was the case after the fireworks on May 9, 2019.
Sapronov and Denisov, on the contrary, did not admit guilt. According to them, they carried out all manipulations with the charges on the instructions of the company management. However, the Belarusian court rejected the request of defense lawyers to call Piro-Ross OJSC as a civil defendant.
At the same time, the chief engineer of Piro-Ross, Andrei Inkin, confirmed the words of his subordinates in court.
“Along the way, they received an additional task from me: if suddenly they come across charges that do not fit into the barrel, they need to be tested. This already happened on May 9, 2019, when I came to Minsk, there were several charges that did not fall into the pipe under their own weight. We had suspicions that the situation could repeat itself on July 3,” Inkin said in an interview with TUT.BY.
He emphasized that Sapronov and Denisov came to Minsk at the expense of Piro-Ross to provide “fraternal assistance” to the Belarusian military. There was no contract for their services.
“Our guys are not to blame, because they did what our design documentation does not prohibit them from. According to our documentation, running-in is used even during production,” Inkin said.
He also said that the warranty period of the gun from which the salvos were fired was overdue. The company has repeatedly proposed to the Belarusian Ministry of Defense to conclude an agreement on technical support for fireworks installations, but the Belarusian side responded that there was no extra money for this.
Due to the closure of Russian borders due to the coronavirus, neither relatives nor colleagues were able to attend the trial in Minsk.
Russian engineers face 2 to 7 years in prison.
Russians are being targeted for scapegoating in the Minsk "bloody fireworks" case.