Russia train bomber tortured, killed in jail, father claims

Tarkhan Kartoev, convicted of a 2009 Russian train bombing that killed 28 people, was tortured and killed in jail, his father and human rights group Memorial said Tuesday.

Umatgirei Kartoev said his son, 40, died on June 29 in a prison outside the Urals city of Yekaterinburg after being "severely beaten and tortured."

"He was electrocuted or doused with boiling water," Umatgirei Kartoev told RIA Novosti. "What I need is to punish whoever is guilty of doing it to him."

The prisoner's father said he knew of his son's death when he received a telegram from prison authorities saying he died of cardiac arrest.

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"There are no traces of violent death on the body," Yelena Tishchenko of the Sverdlovsk region penitentiary service said on July 1. "Despite efforts to resuscitate him that lasted 30 minutes, there was no heartbeat."

Umatgirei Kartoev said, however, that photos taken of Tarkhan post-mortem show what look like burns and contusions covering his body, and a line of deep stitches running up from his right ear and across the top of his head. His nose also looks like it could have been broken and his nails were either badly damaged or removed.

He submitted the photos of his son's body to human rights group Memorial, which has made them accessible on its website.

"In my non-professional opinion, this man was tortured, although it is impossible to verify it," said Timur Akiev, head of Memorial's branch in Ingushetia. He also noted that the group has sent the pictures to forensic experts and filed a formal request with the Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body.

Tarkhan Kartoev was sentenced last May to seven years in jail for his role in the November 2009 bombing of a Nevsky Express train in the central region of Tver. He and nine others were convicted of planting explosives that derailed the last two cars of the train, which killed 28 and injured many others.