MOSCOW, January 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court will announce a verdict in a case involving two bomb explosions on the Moscow metro in 2004 on February 2, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the court Tuesday.
Three defendants face possible life sentences in the attacks, which killed a total of 49 people and injured 300 others.
One bomb went off in a train carriage between the Avtozavodskaya and Paveletskaya metro stations in February, and the second exploded near the entrance to the Rizhskaya station in northern Moscow in August.
On Tuesday, the defendants made final statements in the hearings, which were being held behind closed doors, before the judges recessed to deliberate the verdict.
A state prosecutor earlier demanded that the three key suspects, Murat Shavayev, Tamby Khubiyev and Maxim Panaryin, be given life sentences for their involvement in the attacks.
The suspects were charged with terrorism, murder, affiliation with a criminal group, illegal arms possession and bomb making.
Court spokesman Anna Usacheva said one of the co-defendants, Shavayev, continued to maintain his innocence and asked the court to clear him of all charges. Another defendant, Khubiyev, fully admitted his guilt and asked the court for leniency.
The third defendant, Panaryin, has partially admitted his guilt.
Igor Trunov, a lawyer for the victims, supported the prosecutor's request for life sentences and asked that the court order the defendants to pay 36,200,000 rubles ($1.37 million) in damages on 12 claims.
The defendants are also suspected of involvement in a series of terrorist attacks at bus stops in the southwestern city of Voronezh and in Krasnodar, in southern Russia.
