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All 11 suspects in St. Petersburg metro blast plead not guilty to charges

The bombing occured on April 3, 2017

© Alexander Demianchuk/TASS

ST.PETERSBURG, April 2. /TASS/. All eleven suspects in the 2017 metro blast in St. Petersburg have pleaded not guilty to the charges, a TASS correspondent reported on Tuesday.

"We absolutely disagree with the charges," they told a session of the Moscow District Military Court.

The suspects in the case are Abror Azimov, who is thought to be the mastermind of the April 3, 2017 terrorist attack, and his alleged accomplices - Seifulla Khakimov, Dilmurad Muidinov, Sodik Ortikov, Azamzhon Makhmudov, Makhamadyusuf Mirzaalimov, Bakhram Ergashev, Ibragim Ermatov, Shokhista Karimova, Akram Azizov and Mukhamadyusup Ermatov.

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Explosion jolts premises of military academy in St. Petersburg

They are charged with being part of a terrorist group and having carried out the terrorist attack, supporting terrorist activity and illegal production and sale of explosive devices.

According to investigators, on April 3, 2017 a suicide bomber, Akbarzhon Djalilov, brought two explosive devices to the St. Petersburg metro. He left one bomb at a platform of a metro station, but it was found and safely defused. The man blew up the second bomb in a metro carriage between two stations. The blast killed 15 and injured 67 people.

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