Failed Chechen Bomber Jailed for 20 Years

A young Chechen woman who apparently had a change of heart moments before she was to detonate a bomb in a crowded Moscow restaurant was yesterday sentenced to 20 years in jail - three days after she threatened to blow herself and her jailers up as soon as she was released.

Zarema Muzhakhoyeva, 23, was detained by police after she abandoned her bag outside the Imber restaurant in central Moscow in July.

Police said she had appeared intoxicated and had given herself up to security guards when they tried to inspect her bag, in which 400g of explosives were hidden.

Giorgi Trofimov, a member of the Russian security services, was killed while trying to defuse the device.

Muzhakhoyeva remained quiet throughout her trial, but after being found guilty she reportedly said: "I hate you, Russians. I didn't want to blow anyone up. But now I'll sit in prison for 20 years, or 25, and when I return, I'll blow you all up."

The judge, Pyotr Shtunder, said Muzhakhoyeva had been part of the same criminal group that had led two other young Chechen women to blow up themselves and 14 music fans at a rock concert in Moscow days earlier.

On that occasion Mr Trofimov had successfully defused one of the undetonated devices on the corpses of the two suicide bombers.

The authorities suspect that the restaurant bomb, which had been lifted and dropped several times by a robot, but only exploded when Mr Trofimov approached, may have been remotely detonated.

In an interview the authorities permitted Muzhakhoyeva to give to the Izvestia newspaper while she was on remand, she said she had not wanted to detonate the bomb and had deliberately attracted attention to herself to ensure that she was stopped. She said she feared that her minders would punish her family in Chechnya if she failed.

The prosecution said, however, that she had pressed the detonation key several times before she was seized.

Human rights activists have denounced the sentence as too harsh, especially as her testimony to the police enabled them to find a house in Moscow where explosives and detonators were stored.