Russia's Supreme Court upholds verdict on "Neva-Express" explosion in 2007

The Supreme Court has rejected the complaint lodged by the defence of the convicted residents of Ingushetia Salambek Dzakhkiev and Maksharip Khidriev on the case of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in 2007, having upheld the earlier verdict of the Novgorod Regional Court.

Let us remind you that the Novgorod Regional Court on February 26 sent Dzakhkiev's and Khidriev's cassation complaints to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, same as the victim's cassation. On January 15, Dzakhkiev and Khidriev were acquitted under the article of terrorism. However, the court found them guilty of illegal circulation of explosives and sentenced Salambek Dzakhkiev to 10 years of imprisonment and Maksharip Khidriev - to 4 years. Earlier, the state accusation had refused to lodge cassation against this verdict.

The ITAR-TASS specifies that Dzakhkiev's punishment was appointed by aggregate of crimes, as he was also found guilty of robbery committed back in 2003.

Lawyer Murad Yunusov said that he is going to appeal against this verdict upheld today by the Supreme Court to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.

The party of state prosecution, in its turn, found the verdict to be "lawful and justified" and asked to leave it without changes. "The arguments that violence had been applied to the convicts were not confirmed at check," said the public prosecutor, as the "Interfax" reports.

In their cassations, the convicts and their advocates asked to cancel the verdict and stop criminal prosecution of Dzakhkiev and Khidriev. Speaking at the judicial session on January 15, Tamara Azarova, Dzakhkiev's advocate stated that her client was exposed to psychological and moral pressure during the investigation; therefore he twice tried to commit suicide. Also, the defence of the convicts has stated that at the moment when terror acts were committed, their clients were in other regions of the country: Dzakhkiev was in the Samara Region and Khidriev was in Ingushetia, which was confirmed by the billing data of their mobile phones and transport tickets.