The attack
On April 3, 2017, an explosion struck a Saint Petersburg Metro train traveling between Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut. Fifteen victims were killed. Court reporting also recorded dozens of injured passengers. The suspected suicide bomber, Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, died in the attack.
A separate device was discovered elsewhere in the metro system and was made safe before it could cause further casualties. This archive does not reproduce technical specifications, construction details or other operational information.
The investigation
Russian investigators arrested a group of suspects from Central Asian backgrounds and accused them of financing, organizing or otherwise assisting the attack. Eleven defendants ultimately stood trial. They did not all have the same alleged role, and the page does not collapse their individual charges into a single description.
The proceedings were also marked by serious due-process allegations. Human Rights Watch documented claims by some defendants that they had been tortured and that evidence had been fabricated or staged. Those claims are important to the history of the prosecution and are reported here as documented allegations; they are not presented as a substitute judgment on guilt.
The 2019 verdicts
On December 10, 2019, the Second Western District Military Court convicted all 11 defendants. Abror Azimov received life imprisonment. The other ten defendants received prison terms that originally ranged from 19 to 28 years, along with fines and related orders.
The lawyers announced appeals. An appellate military court later adjusted some individual terms, including modest reductions for certain defendants, while leaving the core convictions intact.
Supreme Court review
On December 16, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected the cassation complaints and left both the trial judgment and the appellate ruling unchanged. That decision makes the case appropriately classified here as adjudicated as to the 11 convicted defendants.
Later civil litigation also continued to identify the same 11 people as convicted participants. In May 2025, the Saint Petersburg Metro filed a further damages claim against them arising from the 2017 attack.
April 3, 2017: the metro attack kills 15 victims; the suspected suicide bomber also dies.
2017: investigators arrest and charge multiple alleged organizers and accomplices.
December 10, 2019: 11 defendants are convicted; sentences range from long prison terms to life imprisonment.
2021: an appellate military court adjusts some individual terms while preserving the convictions.
December 16, 2022: Russia's Supreme Court rejects the cassation complaints and leaves the convictions in force.
May 2025: the Saint Petersburg Metro brings a new civil damages claim against the convicted participants.
Current status
The 11 convictions remain in force after Supreme Court review. The case is therefore classified as solved/adjudicated for archive purposes, while the documented torture and evidence-fabrication allegations remain an important part of the procedural record and are not omitted.
Sources
- Interfax — Supreme Court leaves the convictions in force, December 16, 2022
- TASS — 2019 convictions and sentences
- Reuters — 11 defendants jailed over the 2017 bombing
- Human Rights Watch — convictions and documented torture allegations
- Vedomosti — 2025 civil damages claim against the convicted participants
Archive context
This case is included in the Russia archive. Related terrorism files include The 2010 Moscow Metro Bombings and The Domodedovo Airport Bombing.