ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 23, 2007 Friday

Prosecutors charge 2 Moscow students with terrorism

Moscow prosecutors on Friday charged two students of city law schools
with staging an explosion at a gambling machines hall.

Dmitry Fedoseyenko and Nikolai Kachalov, both aged 20, are also
suspects in the criminal case over the explosion at the city’s
Cherkizovsky market on August 21, 2006, in which ten people were
killed an another 55 were injured, city prosecutors said.

“Investigators say Kachalov and Fedoseyenkov were part of the
criminal group which committed the crime, but were not directly
involved in preparing and perpetrating it,” the prosecutors said.

As of now, six people are facing criminal responsibility in the case.

“The investigators have ascertained their involvement in a series of
explosions: in a dormitory in Podyemnaya Street, the Neolit cafe, a
garbage bin in Proyezd Dezhneva Street, a gambling machines hall, the
editorial office of the Russky Vestnik newspaper, the Liliana medical
center, the kiosk in Ostrovityanova Street, near an apartment
building in Yakhroma, Moscow region, as well as in the murder of an
ethnic Armenian at the Pushkinskaya subway station,” according to
the prosecutors.

Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky court sanctioned the arrest of the students
earlier on Friday.

During the Friday hearing, Kachalov partially admitted his guilt, but
stated that the qualification of the crimes he has been charged with
was “illegitimate and ungrounded.”

“I confess to staging an explosion, but it wasn’t terrorism. In
addition, I state that I set on fire a package of explosives under
the threat of physical violence by Kostyrev and Tinkov /accused of
staging the blast at Moscow’s Cherkizovsky market/, who threatened me
and my relatives,” Kachalov told the court.

Meanwhile, other defendant Dmitry Fedoseyenkov, insisting on his
innocence, stated that investigators had put psychological pressure
on him.

“The criminal case was opened in August 2006, I’ve lived in my house
all the time, found a job, and entered a college; consequently, I’m
not going into hiding; furthermore, I pledge to turn up for all
investigative actions,” Fedoseyenkov said.

His lawyer said the Fedoseyenkov’s being in custody might affect his
health and psychological condition.

But the court agreed with the prosecutors citing that “the
defendants, if freed, may flee the investigation, influence it or
thwart investigative actions.”

“Today’s ruling by the court is indescribable; there’re no ground
for keeping them in custody,” Kachalov’s lawyer Andrei Yakovlev told
Itar-Tass, adding that he would certainly appeal this decision.

The students were detained in central Moscow by FSB agents on March
21, as part of the probe into the explosion on the Cherkizovsky
market.

Fedoseyenkov and Kachalov have also been charged with involvement in
the explosion by the gaming machines hall near the Bratislavskaya
subway station.

In addition, Fedoseyenkov is believed to have been behind the blast
near a trade pavilion in Proyezd Dezhneva.

If found guilty, the students may face up to life imprisonment.