Myantsyuk offers apologies, trial to continue

Raman Myantsyuk offered his apology to victims of a crash that occurred this past March when traffic police tried to capture him by using civilian vehicles with people still inside, BelaPAN reported.
At his trial that began in Minsk on Tuesday morning, Myantsyuk asked the judge to allow him to make a televised apology.

Myantsyuk is facing a charge of causing a grave bodily injury as a result of a violation of road traffic rules. A passenger of the car driven by him was injured in the incident.

The incident, dubbed the "human roadblock" by the media, occurred near Minsk on March 2. Two traffic police officers used four vehicles, with their occupants still inside, to block a road in order to catch Mr. Myantsyuk who was under the influence of alcohol behind the wheel. The chased car, which was said to be moving at a speed of between 160 and 180 kilometers per hour, never stopped and crashed into the vehicles, with a BMW in which a woman and a child were in the back seat hit worst.

"I apologize for the incident," Myantsyuk said looking at cameras of television networks. "I did not know that it would end up like this. I am to blame. I myself forced Volha [his then fiancée and now wife] to let me behind the wheel. The traffic police officers suffered because of me."

The police officers were given suspended prison sentences, found guilty of office abuse, while  Myantsyuk and his wife went on the run. They were grabbed in Moscow in early July.

Earlier at the trial held by the Minsk District Court, Myantsyuk fully admitted his guilt.

He told the judge that he did not seek a mercy or a non-guilty verdict.

At the same time, he filed a motion asking the judge not to sentence him to prison. He claimed that he had had no opportunity to consult a lawyer and traveled to Russia to find a job to earn money for paying damages to the victims.

He also apologized to the police officers for what he called forcing them to set up the human block.