Four students in Ufa charged with railway sabotage. Medvedev discusses the death penalty.

A district court in Ufa has taken into custody four suspects accused of organizing a terrorist act, reports Kommersant, citing the court’s press release.

The suspects are 18-year-old Farrukhjon Zokirov, Mustafa Shakhbazov, and Emin Sadygov, as well as Sadygov’s 17-year-old brother. According to the prosecution, they tried at least five times to damage railway electrical equipment in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and in hopes of destabilizing the work of authorities in Bashkortostan.

A RBC Ufa source in law enforcement said that the defendants set fire to a switching station on the Chernikovka - Shaksha stretch, as well as signalling control equipment on the Dema - Blokpost stretch. On October 27, the FSB detained two subjects while they were trying to set fire to a switching station on a railway in Ufa.

Kommersant and Verstka write, citing the defendant’s VKontakte pages, that Shakhbazov studies at the Ufa Judicial Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sadygov at the Ufa College of Aviation, and his younger brother at the Musa Gareyev Cadet Corps school.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and the country’s former president and prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, commented on the case, calling the defendants, “foreign students,” and “monsters,” and noting that during the Second World War “saboteurs” were shot.

“Modern Russia has a moratorium on the death penalty. It’s very humane....Although, let me emphasize again that even within the framework of this constitution, the moratorium on the death penalty can be changed in cases of necessity by changing the Constitutional Court of Russia’s legal position. This is a question of choosing the means to protect the interests of our people, state, and society,” Medvedev posted. It’s not the first time he’s spoken about the death penalty since the start of the war.

Verstka notes that, judging by photos and their social media profiles, the defendants have been living and studying in Ufa since childhood. The publication could not confirm that they are foreign citizens.

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