> that would leave a giant power vacuum  on 26 june 1953, beria was arrested and held in an undisclosed location near moscow. accounts of his downfall vary considerably. the historical consensus is that khrushchev prepared an elaborate ambush, convening a meeting of the presidium on 26 june, where he suddenly launched a scathing attack on beria, accusing him of being a traitor and spy in the pay of british intelligence agencies. beria was taken completely by surprise. he asked, "what's going on, nikita sergeyevich? why are you picking fleas in my trousers?" when beria finally realised what was happening and plaintively appealed to malenkov to speak for him, malenkov silently hung his head and pressed a button on his desk. this was an arranged signal to marshal georgy zhukov and a group of armed officers in a nearby room, who burst in and arrested beria.[b]   beria and his men were tried by a "special session" (ceaoe cyeoe pcyce) of the supreme court of the soviet union on 23 december 1953 with no defence counsel and no right of appeal. marshal ivan konev was the chairman of the court.[84][85] beria was found guilty of: treason.  terrorism. counter-revolutionary activity during the russian civil war. beria and all the other defendants were sentenced to death on the day of the trial. the other six defendants  dekanozov, merkulov, vlodzimirsky, meshik, goglidze, and kobulov  were shot immediately after the trial ended.[86] beria was executed separately; he allegedly pleaded on his knees before collapsing to the floor wailing.[87] he was shot through the forehead by general pavel batitsky.[88] his final moments bore great similarity to those of his own predecessor, nikolai yezhov, who begged for his life before his execution in 1940.[89]
Finland