At meeting with head of Ingushetia, advocates in "Neva Express" Train explosion case called the verdict unfair

At a meeting in Magas, the defenders of the convicts in the case of blowing up the "Neva Express" Train discussed the imposed sentence with the head of Ingushetia. Yunus-Bek Evkurov promised to promote an objective investigation of the criminal case.

On March 31, 2010, the residents of the Ingush village of Ekazhevo Kartoev brothers and Zelimkhan Aushev were charged with terrorism and blowing up the "Neva Express" Train in autumn of 2009. Later, 10 more natives of Ingushetia were arrested, but they refused to plead guilty. On May 22, 2012, the Tver Regional Court sentenced four defendants to life imprisonment and awarded the rest of them with from seven to eight years in prison.

The meeting, which was held in the residence of Yunus-Bek Evkurov on August 29 and lasted for more than two hours, was attended by the advocates of the Kartoev family Tatiana Okushko, Musa Pliev and Nikolai Dyakov.

According to Nikolai Dyakov, the head of Ingushetia promised to promote a fair consideration of the criminal case and involve human rights organizations.

"Today, at the meeting with the head of Ingushetia, we presented our position on our clients. The guilt of the figurants in the 'Neva Express' Train case was not proved; all the advocates agree that people were wrongly convicted," said Mr Dyakov.

"The guilt of the Kartoev brothers and Zelimkhan Aushev was not proved; however, in spite of this, the court sentenced them to long prison terms and even to life imprisonment. We intend to defend the position of innocence of our clients to the very end: the case has already been sent to the Supreme Court; and following its decision we plan appeal to the European Court of Human Rights," said the lawyer Tatiana Okushko.

According to the advocates, the meeting also raised the issue of rendering some material help to the Kartoev families. Mr Evkurov said that he would act in this situation in accordance with the law.