2006 Moscow market bombing

2006 Moscow market bombing
Cherkizovsky Market in 2008
Cherkizovsky Market 2006 Moscow market bombing (Moscow Ring Road) Show map of Moscow Ring Road 2006 Moscow market bombing (European Russia) Show map of European Russia 2006 Moscow market bombing (Russia) Show map of Russia
Location	Moscow, Russia
Coordinates	55°48′00″N 37°45′09″E
Date	August 21, 2006
Target	Immigrant market
Attack type	Time bombing, right-wing terrorism
Weapons	TNT
Deaths	13
Injured	47
Perpetrators	The Saviour

The 2006 Moscow market bombing occurred on August 21, 2006, when a self-made bomb with power of more than 1kg of TNT exploded at Moscow's Cherkizovsky Market, frequented by foreign merchants.^[1] In 2008, eight members of the racialist organization The Saviour (Спас) were sentenced for their roles in the attack.^[2]

Many traders at the market are from Asia and the Caucasus. As of October 3, 2006, 13 persons were confirmed dead: six citizens of Tajikistan, three citizens of Uzbekistan, two citizens of Russia, a citizen of Belarus, and a citizen of China. Eight people died at the scene, two in the hospital on the same day as the bombing, and three at a later date. The last person to die from the bombing was a man who was a citizen of Tajikistan, who died on September 28, 2006, in a hospital.^[3]

Perpetrators and prosecutions

Two ethnic Russian suspects were arrested, and the general prosecutor of Moscow Yuri Syomin charged them with a racially motivated murder.^[4][5] The prosecutor's office officially indicted three university students, Oleg Kostyrev, Ilya Tikhomirov (both 20 years old) and Valeri Zhukovtsev (18 years old) on a racially motivated murder charge on August 22.^[6]

According to the investigation, Kostyrev, Tikhomirov and Zhukovtsev were members of the nationalistic club The Saviour. The leader of the club, Nikolay Korolyov, and two more club members, Sergei Klimuk (a former FSB officer) and police academy student Nikita Senyukov, were co-indicted with Kostyrev, Tikhomirov and Zhukovtsev on the charges of murder, terrorism, organizing a criminal gang and illegal production and storage of explosives. Senyukov was also indicted for murder of an Armenian student on a subway. Allegedly, the conspirators have performed numerous explosions before, without any victims, blowing up Azerbaijani-owned stores, an Armenian refugee hostel and an office of a Georgian-born fortune teller.^[7]

On May 15, 2008, after a guilty verdict in the jury trial, Korolyov, Klimuk, Tikhomirov and Kostyrev received a sentence of life imprisonment. Zhukovtsev received 20 years in prison, Senyukov 13 years and the two students who actually delivered the bomb to the market, Dmitri Fedoseyenkov and Nikolai Kachalov only 2 years (the court decided they were not a part of the "criminal enterprise").^[8] Later the same month, an appeal was filed with the Supreme Court by the convicted.^[9] Fedoseyenkov and Kachalov were released from prison on March 20, 2009 after serving their sentence. Other convict's appeals were still underway as of that time.^[10]

In August 2010, it was announced that Korolyov and Kostyrev were also suspects in the murder of a Chinese citizen by stabbing in Moscow on May 19, 2006.^[11]

References

1. Market Blast Kills 10 and Injures 55
2. Russian court jails market bombers Archived 2008-05-19 at the Wayback Machine Al Jazeera. 15 May 2008.
3. (in Russian) Газета.Ru - Число жертв взрыва на Черкизовском рынке достигло 13 Archived 2018-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
4. Danilova, Maria (August 22, 2006). "2 Accused of Hate Crime in Moscow Blast". The Washington Post.
5. "Moscow attack 'may be race hate'". BBC News. August 22, 2006.
6. (in Russian) Prosecutor's office solved the anti-terrorist act, Kommersant, August 23, 2006.
7. (in Russian) Terrorists students given up by a diary, Kommersant, August 8, 2007.
8. (in Russian) Saviour convicted with applause, Kommersant, May 16, 2008.
9. (in Russian) Convicted nationalists complain about the pressure, Kommersant, May 29, 2008
10. (in Russian) Освобождены двое обвиняемых по делу о взрыве на Черкизовском рынке
11. (in Russian) "Осужденных за взрыв на Черкизовском рынке обвиняют в убийстве китайца | Новости | Российское агентство правовой и судебной информации - РАПСИ" Осужденных за взрыв на Черкизовском рынке обвиняют в убийстве китайца (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 27 August 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2011.