Russia: Ten jailed for Nevsky Express train bomb

[John Ashworth]

Russia: Ten jailed for Nevsky Express train bomb

22 May 2012 Last updated at 13:00 GMT BBC

A Russian court has jailed 10 people, four of them for life, for the bombing of a high-speed train in November 2009 in which 27 people died.

Another 130 people were hurt in the blast which hit the last three carriages of the Moscow-to-St Petersburg Nevsky Express.

Nine of the 10 convicted are from the same family. They were arrested in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.

Four were found guilty of murder. The others face 7 to 8-year jail terms.

The train was derailed by the blast.

As officials inspected the scene, near the town of Bologoye, around 400km (250 miles) north-west of Moscow, another explosion wounded an investigator.

Within days of the 2009 attack, an Islamist group in the North Caucasus said it was behind the bombing, claiming it had been ordered by Russia's most wanted man, Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov.

Mr Umarov has been linked to a string of attacks including a January 2011 Moscow airport bombing in which 36 people died.

Gang leader

In March 2010, Russian forces launched a raid on the Ingush village of Ekazhevo. The authorities said they killed eight suspected militants, including the man they named as the gang's leader, Said Buryatsky, who was also known as Alexander Tikhomirov.

Of the ten men detained in Ekazhevo, nine were from the Kartoyev family.

A court in the central city of Tver on Tuesday found three members of the family and another man, Zelimkhan Aushev, guilty of murder, organising an act of terrorism and illegal arms trafficking, jailing them for life.

Six other Katoyev family-members face up to eight years in prison.

Lawyers acting for the 10 accused said they would appeal against the convictions, Ria news agency says.

The case was held behind closed doors, Russian media report, and the defence has questioned the forensic evidence used against the men.

As well as facing life terms in jail, the four men were ordered by the Tver regional court to pay 134m roubles (£2.7m; $4.3m) in compensation to Russian railways.