All news

Another suspected Islamic State recruiter detained in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, April 6. /TASS/. An eighth suspected recruiter for Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, the terrorist groups outlawed in Russia, has been detained in St. Petersburg, the city’s Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee reported on Thursday.

"On April 5, 2017, as a result of carrying out investigative and search measures jointly with operatives of the regional branches of the FSB [the Federal Security Service], the Interior Ministry of Russia and special units of the National Guard, investigators have detained six citizens of Central Asian republics," it said.

According to investigators, they had been recruiting mostly natives of Central Asian republics in St. Petersburg since November 2015 for terror-related crimes and involvement in the activity of the Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State terrorist organizations outlawed in Russia.

"Russia’s Investigative Committee will thoroughly check all the ties and the contacts of the persons detained but it should be noted at once that the investigation has no data on the detainees’ link and acquaintance with the perpetrator of the terror attack in the St. Petersburg subway," the Investigative Committee said.

The Investigative Committee’s Main Investigation Department for St. Petersburg has opened a criminal case on counts of a crime stipulated in part 1, article 205.1 of Russia’s Criminal Code ("Assistance to Terrorist Activity"). The Investigative Committee has said the suspects were seeking to involve recruited citizens in the activity of other illegal armed formations, including on the territory of foreign states.

"Searches are being held at the suspects’ living places, in the course of which investigators are seizing Islamist extremist literature, the items and documents important for investigating the criminal case," the Investigative Committee said.

Investigators are currently deciding on arresting the detainees and bringing charges against them. Measures are also under way to identify and bring the detainees’ accomplices to criminal liability.

An unidentified device went off at about 14:40 Moscow time on Monday in a subway train car when it was moving from the Tekhnologichesky Institut Station to the Sennaya Ploshchad Station.

The Russian Investigative Committee has qualified the blast as a terrorist attack but other versions are being looked into as well.

A total of 14 people have died as a result of the blast while over 50 have been injured.

As a source in law-enforcement agencies said, the explosive device was triggered by a suicide bomber.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has named the man who detonated the bomb on a St. Petersburg metro train on Monday afternoon. The man's name is Akbardjon Djalilov, a native of Kyrgyzstan born in 1995.