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St. Petersburg terror blast was financed by terrorist group from Turkey — judge

According to the judge, Akram Azimov, a tenth suspect in St. Petersburg metro bombing, received cash in Turkey for the terrorist attack

Akram Azimov Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

Akram Azimov

© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. The St. Petersburg metro train blast was financed by members of an international terrorist group from Turkey, Judge Yelena Lenskaya said while reading out the decision to remand in custody a tenth accomplice in the case, Akram Azimov.

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"According to the available evidence Akram Azimov personally received cash in Turkey for the terrorist attack. Also, he supervised the issue of forged IDs to members of the terrorist group for their unhampered trips across borders.

She also said Abror Azimov, arrested earlier on suspicion of organizing the blast in St Petersburg, received the money for perpetrating the terrorist act and passed it on to the perpetrator, Akbarjon Jalilov.

The investigator did not specify Azimov’s role in the attack but said that organizers of the terror attack are being searched for in various Russian regions.

On Thursday, Moscow City's Basmanny district court put Akram Azimov to custody until June 3. The arrested man did not recognize his guilt in the courtroom.

An investigator present in the court said the search for organizers of the April 3 terrorist act in the St Petersburg metro was underway in different regions of Russia.

A blast ripped through a coach of a train moving between Tekhnologicheskiy Institut and Sennaya Ploshchad stations in the St Petersburg metro at around 14:40 on April 3. It claimed fourteen lives and left more than fifty people wounded.

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The terrorist who detonated the explosive device died, too. One more bomb was defused on Ploshchad Vosstaniya station somewhat later.

Russia's Investigative Committee identified Akbarjon Jalilov, a native of Kyrgyzstan, as the individual who committed the terrorist act. It instituted a criminal case.

On April 6, the Investigative Committee reported dentention of eight suspects in the case, both in St Petersburg and in Moscow. The suspected organizer of the blast, Abror Azimov was arrested on April 18.

The Director of Russia's FSB state security service, Alexander Bortnikov, said earlier all the suspects were members of clandestine terrorist cells.

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