MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Supreme Court upheld Tuesday the verdict on a Grozny-Moscow train explosion in 2005, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom.
The court did not grant the appeal by the defense.
On June 12, 2005, an improvised bomb equivalent to three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of TNT was set off on the railway line 153 kilometers (95 miles) south of Moscow as a train on route from Grozny, the capital of the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, to Moscow passed along the route.
Forty-two people were injured, five of them, including a child, were hospitalized.
"The verdict comes into legal force from tomorrow," the court said.
In their appeal, defense lawyers said the jury selection process had been carried out improperly. "Candidates for the jury were not randomly selected, as would be in line with the law, but those who had been rejected at other court trials in the Moscow Regional Court," a lawyer said.
The defense also said the court was biased, but a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office said the accusations were unfounded.
The defendants - Vladimir Vlasov, a businessman, and Mikhail Klevachev, a construction company employee - were charged with terrorism and attempting to kill two or more people for reasons of race or religious hatred. They did not plea guilty to the charges.
In March, judges decided that there was enough evidence to prove the defendants' involvement in the crimes they were charged with. The jury voted 10-12 in favor of a guilty verdict.
Although the defendants were found guilty of all charges, including terrorism, the judges decided they deserved leniency.
Vlasov was given 18 years in prison and Klevachev 19 years, whereas the prosecution had demanded 20 and 22 years, respectively.
In December 2006, a Moscow Region court dismissed the jury in the case of the train-derailing blast after it reached a not guilty verdict. After the acquittal, the court dismissed the jury and ordered a new trial.
