Key suspect in 2017 St. Petersburg Metro blast sentenced to life

Russia’s Second Western District Military Court on Tuesday found Abror Azimov guilty of bankrolling a terror attack in St. Petersburg in April 2017 and sentenced him to life in jail, TASS said.

Prosecutors earlier demanded a life sentence for Azimov, who was a key suspect in the metro blast, along with his brother Akram, and Ibragim and Mukhamadyusup Ermatov. 

The court sentenced 10 other men to between 19 and 28 years in jail for the bombing. None of the suspects pleaded guilty.

The blast killed 15 people and injured 67 on April 3, 2017, after suicide bomber Akbarzhon Djalilov brought two explosive devices into the St. Petersburg Metro. He had 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.