| The jury left the would-be suicide bomber without mercy At the Moscow City Court, a panel of jurors yesterday issued a verdict in the case of Zarema Muzhakhoeva, a suicide bomber sent by Chechen militants last summer to carry out another explosion in Moscow. On the evening of July 9, 2003, she came with a bomb to one of the restaurants on 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, but she failed to blow herself up. The “Black Widow” was detained by police, but while clearing the abandoned mine, FSB explosives technician Major Georgy Trofimov died.
Muzhakhoeva's trial - at her own request with a jury - began in February. Moreover, the question of her actual guilt was not subject to discussion at the trial. Even during the investigation, the defendant told in detail, confirming all the testimony at the trial, how she became a suicide bomber and how she prepared the explosion. Therefore, the main intrigue revolved around the wording of the charges and possible leniency towards the accused. The Prosecutor General's Office accused Muzhakhoeva of terrorism, storage and transportation of an explosive device (Articles 205 and 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, respectively). Her defense insisted that Zarema Muzhakhoeva found herself in the ranks of terrorists due to life circumstances; having already come to Tverskaya Street with a bomb, she had no intention of blowing up anyone, she herself tried to attract the attention of the police in order to surrender, and after her arrest she assisted in every possible way in the investigation. On this basis, the “black widow’s” lawyer Natalya Evlapova tried to prove to the jury that her client was not guilty of terrorism, but agreed to be held responsible only for storing explosives.
However, yesterday the jury ignored all the confessions and stories of Zarema herself, and the arguments of her lawyer, and delivered the most severe verdict possible. She was unanimously found guilty of all charges against her and did not even deserve leniency.
Such a harsh verdict from the people’s court came as a complete surprise to Muzhakhoeva’s defense, and after that she herself suffered a nervous breakdown. Since the trial was held behind closed doors, journalists were not allowed into the courtroom. However, even from behind the tightly closed doors, the defendant’s loud scream could be heard in the corridor. Ms. Evlapova said that the defendant said: “In 20-25 years I will come back and do what I didn’t want to do now.” According to the mother of the FSB officer Muzhakhoeva, who died on July 9, 2003, she shouted: “I haven’t hated you before, but now I hate you, and when I return, I will blow you all up.” This is where the court hearing ended yesterday. Apparently, now Muzhakhoeva, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, faces at least 10 years in prison.
According to Muzhakhoeva herself, she ended up with the militants of her own free will, but due to circumstances. Living in Chechnya, she got married early, gave birth to a child, but soon her husband was killed. Then her husband’s parents took her daughter away from her and sent her to relatives. To return the child and leave Chechnya, she stole jewelry from relatives, but was caught. To repay the debt, as Muzhakhoeva admitted during the investigation, she turned to the militants, because she heard that they were paying the relatives of suicide bombers $1,000. At first, her “curators” instructed Zarema to blow up a bus with employees of the Air Force base in Mozdok, but due to an attack of sinusitis, she was unable to do this. Then Muzhakhoeva was sent to Moscow. She arrived in the capital on July 3, 2003 from Nazran and lived for several days in a private house in the village of Tolstopaltsevo in the Moscow region, where the terrorists had a base. Two terrorists also lived there, who blew themselves up on July 5 in Tushino during the “Wings” rock festival (16 people died and 50 were injured). On the instructions of the bandits, on July 9, Zarema was supposed to blow herself up at the entrance to the Mon Cafe restaurant on Tverskaya. According to investigators, Muzhakhoeva first admitted during interrogations that she pressed the switch on the bomb several times, but it did not go off. At the trial, the defendant claimed that she had no intention of blowing up anyone, but did her best to attract the attention of passers-by so that they would call the police. According to Muzhakhoeva, she was afraid to openly surrender to the police because she thought that the militants were watching her from the side and could kill her child for this. During the investigation, according to Muzhakhoeva’s testimony, intelligence officers discovered several caches of militants with bombs and detained or eliminated a number of terrorist attack organizers Alexander RASKIN, Victor PAUKOV |
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