A prosecutor is seeking life sentences for four suspects in the deadly 2017 subway blast in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg.
Investigators say that on April 3, 2017, 22-year-old suicide bomber Akbarjon Jalilov, an ethnic Uzbek Russian citizen born in Kyrgyzstan, detonated a bomb in a subway carriage while it was between two stations, killing 15 people and injuring 67 others.
A second explosive was left at a station platform, but it was found and safely defused.
Prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova asked the judge on November 18 to sentence Abror Azimov, who authorities say masterminded the attack, along with Akram Azimov, Muhammadyusup Ermatov, and Ibragimjon Ermatov to life in prison.
Tikhonova also asked the judge to sentence five other defendants to prison terms between 27 and 28 years. There are 11 defendants in the case -- all natives of Central Asian former Soviet republics -- who all pleaded not guilty to charges of being members of a terrorist group, supporting terrorist activity, and the illegal production and sale of explosive devices.
Judge Andrei Morozov had to stop the hearing after the only woman among the defendants felt unwell and an ambulance was called to the courtroom.
The prosecutor is expected to continue her statement on November 19.
