A Russian court jailed four people for life on Tuesday over a 2009 bomb attack on a high-speed train between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Twenty-eight people died and scores were injured when a blast derailed the Nevsky Express luxury train on November 28, 2009.
A follow-up blast that targeted investigators working at the scene left Investigation Committee head Alexander Bastrykin with head injuries.
Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the attack, which came some two years after a bombing of the same train injured sixty people.
Three members of the same family, Murat, Tatarkhan and Beslan Kartoyev, as well as Zelemkhan Aushev, were sentenced to life for their part in the attack during a trial in the central Russian town of Tver. The trial was held under heavy security measures.
Six other members of the Kartoyev family were jailed for between seven and eight years.
“We will appeal to the Supreme Court,” a lawyer for the accused said. “Such a sentence can not go unpunished.” Defense lawyers had sought the acquittal of all ten suspects.
All ten were detained during a special operation in the volatile North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, which neighbors Chechnya, in March 2010.
Eight suspected militants were also killed during the operation in the Ingush village of Ekazhevo.
