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Suspected St. Petersburg blast organizer's citizenship under scrutiny

Xinhua, April 19, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Russian Interior Ministry is investigating whether the suspected organizer of the St. Petersburg metro explosion Azimov Abror Akhralovich acquired Russian citizenship legally, the ministry said Wednesday.

"Currently, with regard to this issue, we are checking the validity and legality of his acquisition of Russian citizenship," Valentina Kazakova, deputy head of the Main Directorate for Migration of the Russian Interior Ministry, was quoted as saying at a briefing by Russian media.

Kazakova said that a legal assessment of the "entire procedure" will be conducted, and the deprivation of Russian citizenship will be carried out in case that false information has been provided.

The suspect, a Central Asian native born in 1990, was detained on Monday in the Odintsovo District of the Moscow Region, Russia's Federal Security Service said in a statement.

Moscow's Basmanny district court on Tuesday authorized the arrest of the suspect, who said earlier in the day that his involvement in the blast was not direct, specifying that he was "given an order" and was unaware he was complicit in terrorist activities.

A blast hit the St. Petersburg subway on April 3, killing 14 people and injuring over 50 others. The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case over the terrorist act.

Earlier this month, six people in St. Petersburg and two others in Moscow were detained for suspected involvement in the attack. Endi