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Train Bombing Suspects Claim Torture

By Alexandra Odynova

The St. Petersburg Times

MOSCOW — Two Ingush suspects charged in the 2007 bombing of a Moscow-St. Petersburg train told a court Tuesday that they had been tortured by police and subjected to interrogations in a forest and a cellar rather than the police station.

The suspects, Maksharip Khidriyev and Salambek Dzakhiyev, both 41, maintained their innocence in opening statements made to a Novgorod court at the start of their trial for the bombing, which injured 30 passengers and derailed the Nevsky Express train.

Prosecutor Alexander Brusin read out the charges against them to the court, including organizing a terrorist attack, causing injuries and trafficking explosives, court spokesman Alexander Prokofyev said.

If convicted, Khidriyev and Dzakhiyev face up to 20 years in prison.

Khidriyev told the court that he had been tortured with a stun gun during the investigation and had been taken by police to a forest and cellar for questioning, RIA-Novosti reported.

He called the charges against him “madness.”

Dzakhiyev said Federal Security Service officers had tried to arrange for him to escape while questioning him in the forest as part of a frame-up meant to add new charges against him.

“There is no evidence of my guilt,” he said, RIA-Novosti reported. “I’ve been sitting in jail for nothing for 18 months.”

Investigators could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Khidriyev and Dzakhiyev are accused of acquiring explosives and transporting them to the Novgorod region to be assembled into a bomb, the Novgorod Investigative Committee said earlier in a statement. It gave no motive for the bombing. Investigators say the suspects are members of a rebel group headed by warlord Doku Umarov.

A bomb planted on the rails exploded at about 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 13, 2007, as the train carrying 251 passengers traveled through the Novgorod region toward St. Petersburg. Investigators say the bombers had hoped to derail the train while it was crossing a bridge.

The suspected mastermind of the attack, former Russian military cadet Pavel Kosolapov, remains at large. Investigators also accuse him of building the bomb.

One of the passengers has sued the defendants for damages of 250,000 rubles ($8,000), Prokofyev said.

A representative of an insurance company for Russian Railways also attended Tuesday’s trial, he said. The railway estimates that the bombing cost it 236 million rubles ($7.6 million).

The court scheduled the next hearing of the trial for Monday.

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