MOSCOW, December 10 (Itar-Tass) — The defendants, who are accused of a bombing attempt of the Sapsan high-speed train in the Moscow Region in summer 2011, were sentenced from 15 to 18 years in prison.
The penal of three judges headed by Andrei Rasnovsky that is trying this criminal case in the Moscow City Court has passed this court verdict.
Islam Khamzhuyev, Fail Nevlyutov, Mansur Umayev and Mansur Edilbiyev are accused of an attempt at terrorist act, banditry and illegal circulation of weapons. Khamzhuyev, Umayev and Edilbiyev are also charged with illegal making of an explosive device, Khamzhuyev – with the funding of a gang and the participation in it, Nevlyutov – with the participation in the gang.
The court found them guilty on all charges and sentenced Khamzhuyev to 18 years in prison, Umayev – to 17 years in prison, Edilbiyev to 16 years in prison and Nevlyutov to 15 years in prison. They will serve their sentence in a tough security penitentiary. Meanwhile, each of them was sentenced to the limitation of freedom from 1.5 to two years after the term in prison.
The defendants listened to the court verdict calmly in comparison with their relatives.
“Certainly, we will appeal the today’s verdict, because it is too tough and harsh,” Umayev’s lawyer Abusupyan Gaitayev told Itar-Tass.
The trial was held behind closed doors, because several documents were classified. Therefore, the court pronounced only introductory and resolutive parts of the verdict.
During the exchange of arguments the public prosecutor asked to sentence the defendants to long terms in prison from 16 to 19 years.
In July 2011, the Federal Security Service director reported to the Russian president that the terrorist act was averted.
The detectives found that in June 2011 Khamzhuyev joined a gang, for which the terrorist organizations Imarat Kavkaz set the task to explode the rail track on the Moscow-St. Petersburg railway, when the high-speed train Sapsan was running on the railway.
“On the orders Khamzhuyev together with Nevlyutov, Umayev and Edilbiyev joined a gang voluntarily, rented a flat in Moscow, where they had made an explosive device with the power of more than 10.5 kilograms of TNT,” the Prosecutor General’s Office reported. “Then they went to the Moscow Region, where they picked up the place to plant their bomb on a section of the railway between Leningradskoye and Pyatnitskoye highways and detected the time of the train running at the place.”
The detectives found that Khamzhuyev passed the explosive device to other defendants, instructing to plant it at the selected place of the railway and detonate it remotely when the high-speed train Sapsan will be running at the place.
The crime was not finalized. The FSB agents found and defused the bomb. All suspects were detained.