Women suspected of blowing up Russian airliners were detained by police, but let go
By MARIA DANILOVA Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - The two Chechen women suspected of blowing up two Russian airliners last month were briefly detained by airport police before the flights, but were let go, Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said.

After being let go by police, the women paid bribes - one of them just 1,000 rubles (US$34, euro28) to an airline employee - to get on the planes, which exploded and crashed almost simultaneously on the night of Aug. 24, Ustinov said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The commission investigating the crashes concluded that explosions in the passenger cabins caused the tragedies, news agencies reported Wednesday.

Explosives residue was found at the crash sites. Laboratory tests of the wreckage of the Sibir Tu-154 and the Volga-Aviaexpress Tu-134 and information from the planes' black box data recorders proved the explosions occurred in the passenger cabins, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin told reporters.

The Tu-154 crashed in the Rostov region in southern Russia, while the Tu-134 crashed in the Tula region south of Moscow.

The crashes were the first in a series of recent attacks that have killed more than 430 people. In the other attacks, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Moscow subway station, killing 10. The next day, dozens of heavily armed militants took more than 1,200 hostages at a school in southern Russia, which led to the deaths of more than 330 people, many of them children.

Suspicion in the plane attacks has fallen on two Chechen women - one apparently on each plane according to passenger lists.

The women arrived at the airport on the evening of Aug. 24, accompanied by two other Chechens, Ustinov told Interfax.

"Police officers spotted them, confiscated their passports and handed them over to a police captain responsible for anti-terrorism operations to examine their belongings," Ustinov was quoted as saying. "The captain let them go without any check and they started to try to obtain tickets in the same buildings."

It is not unusual for Chechens to be stopped by police in Moscow for questioning.

Working through an intermediary, the women paid a total of 5,000 rubles (about US$170, euro141) to get the tickets, Ustinov said. Russian media identified the intermediary as Armen Arutyunov, a ticket scalper at Domodyedovo airport and a former employee of Siber airlines.

One of the women purchased a plane ticket under the name Dzhebirkhanova that was scheduled for the next day, Ustinov said. But with the help of Arutyunov she bribed an employee of Sibir airlines with 1,000 rubles (US$34, euro28) to let her board the earlier TU-154 flight two minutes before check-in was over, Ustinov said.

The intermediary also helped the other alleged suicide bomber board the TU-134 plane after she paid a bribe, Ustinov said, Interfax reported. He did not elaborate.

Ustinov said both Arutyunov and the airline employee were arrested.

Women suicide bombers have become increasingly common in Russia, where they are known as "black widows" - grief-stricken or helpless women who turn to violence after losing husbands or male relatives in Chechen fighting.

Russia's Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported Wednesday that Russian security services have been searching for about 20 women who have allegedly received training recently from Islamic extremists to commit suicide attacks.

2004-09-16 00:14:26 GMT

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