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UP FRONTTuesday 4 April 2017
Russian subway blast kills 11; 2nd bomb defused American held in Iran released
on bail amid 18-year sentence
IRINA TITOVA Islamists. station, and others bleed-
JIM HEINTZ The National Anti-Terrorism ing and weeping just after JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press Committee said it was look- the damaged train pulled Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Rus- ing for the “perpetrators in. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian-
sia (AP) — A bomb blast and organizers of the terror “Everything was covered in American serving an 18-year prison sentence in Iran
tore through a subway attack.” smoke. There were a lot of for “collaboration with a hostile government” has
train deep under Russia’s St. Petersburg, a major tour- firefighters,” Maria Smirno- been released on bail after staging a weeks-long
second-largest city Mon- ist destination famed for its va, a student on a train be- hunger strike protesting his imprisonment alongside
other dual nationals targeted by hard-liners, activists
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, lays flowers at a place near the Tekhnologichesky Institut said Monday.
subway station in St.Petersburg, Russia, Monday, April 3, 2017. A bomb blast tore through a sub- Robin Shahini of San Diego was freed from prison in
way train deep under Russia’s second-largest city Monday, killing several people and wounding recent days on bail of 2 billion rials, which is about
many more in a chaotic scene that left victims sprawled on a smoky platform. $62,000, said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of
the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.
(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) It’s unclear whether Shahini can leave the country.
“Shahini’s release on bail is good news as his pros-
day, killing 11 people and imperial palaces and lav- hind the stricken one, told ecution did not produce any credible evidence jus-
wounding more than 40 ish art museums, had been independent TV station Do- tifying charges against him,” Ghaemi told The Asso-
in a chaotic scene that spared previous attacks. zhd. ciated Press. “He is an innocent man who appeared
left victims sprawled on a “From now on, I will be Within two hours of the to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and his
smoky platform. Hours lat- scared to take the sub- blast, authorities had found detention and prosecution was motivated by his
er, anguish and fear rose way,” said Marina Ilyina, and deactivated another dual nationality more than anything else.”
again when police found 30, who brought flowers to bomb at another busy sta- Iranian officials and state media did not comment
and defused a shrapnel- the station where the train tion, Vosstaniya Square, on Shahini receiving bail. The Iranian mission to the
packed explosive device stopped after the bomb- the anti-terror agency said. United Nations and the U.S. State Department did
at another St. Petersburg ing. “We in St. Petersburg That station is a major trans- not immediately respond to requests for comment.
station. thought we wouldn’t be fer point for passengers on Shahini, who traveled to Iran to see his mother who
There was no immediate touched by that.” two lines and serves the was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was de-
claim of responsibility for The explosion occurred in railway station to Moscow. tained on July 11. He left Iran in 1998 and has lived
the attack, which came midafternoon as the train Russian law enforcement in San Diego for 16 years. He graduated in May 2016
while President Vladimir Pu- traveled between stations agencies confirmed the from San Diego State University with a degree in
tin was visiting the city, his on one of the city’s north- device was loaded with International Security and Conflict Resolution and
hometown. In the past two south lines. shrapnel, and the Interfax had been accepted to SDSU’s graduate program in
decades, Russian trains The driver chose to con- news agency said it con- Homeland Security.
and planes have been fre- tinue on to the next stop, tained up to 1 kilogram (2.2 At his trial, prosecutors apparently used social media
quent targets of terrorism, Technological Institute, a pounds) of explosives. pictures of Shahini standing near prominent Iranian
usually blamed on Islamic decision praised by the In- Interfax cited an unidenti- exiles to secure his conviction. Hard-liners have been
militants. vestigative Committee as fied law enforcement of- using such cases to challenge the administration of
News reports initially said aiding evacuation efforts ficial saying that investiga- moderate President Hassan Rouhani ahead of the
police were searching for and reducing the danger tors think the suspected sui- country’s coming May presidential election. Rou-
two suspects, and Russian to passengers who would cide bomber left the bomb hani is expected to run in the vote next month.
state television showed a have had to walk along at the Vosstaniya Square Iran does not recognize dual nationalities, meaning
photo of one suspect wear- the electrified tracks. station before blowing him- that those it detains cannot receive consular as-
ing what appeared to be The National Anti-Terrorism self up on the train. sistance. In most cases, dual nationals have faced
a skullcap characteristic Committee said the death The agency said authori- secret charges in closed-door hearings before Iran’s
of Russia’s Muslim regions. toll was 11, with another 45 ties believe the suspect, Revolutionary Court, which handles cases involving
However, the Interfax news people being treated for a 23-year old who came alleged attempts to overthrow the government.
agency later cited unspec- wounds in hospitals. from ex-Soviet Central Asia Analysts and family members of those detained
ified sources as saying po- Amateur video broadcast and was linked to radical have suggested that hard-liners in the Islamic Re-
lice now suspect the blast by Russian TV showed peo- Islamist groups, carried the public’s security agencies want to negotiate an-
was the work of a suicide ple lying on the platform of explosive device onto the other deal with the West to free the detainees. A
bomber linked to radical the Technological Institute train in a rucksack.q prisoner exchange in January 2016 that freed Wash-
ington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other
Iranian-Americans also saw the U.S. make a $400 mil-
lion cash delivery to Iran the same day.
Among the dual national held are Iranian-American
businessman Siamak Namazi and his octogenar-
ian father, Baquer Namazi, who are serving 10-year
prison sentences for “cooperating with the hostile
American government.” Another is Nazanin Zaghari-
Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman sentenced to five
years in prison on allegations of planning the “soft
toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling with
her young daughter.
Yet to be tried is Iranian-American Karan Vafadari,
an art gallery manager held along with his Iranian
wife. Iranian-Canadian national Abdolrasoul Dorri
Esfahani, a member of the country’s team that ne-
gotiated the nuclear deal, is believed to have been
indicted.q
