Alleged suicide bomber Akbarzhon Jalilov who is suspected of carrying out the terror attack in the St. Petersburg subway had a clean record, a source in the law enforcement agencies told TASS on April 5.
"He had no criminal record and had never been ‘on law enforcement’s radar’. His name was not among extremists in the intelligence database," the source stated. He added that Jalilov had never been picked up for any violations whatsoever, he was clean.
"Upon becoming a Russian citizen, there were no problems with him. Citizenship was granted to him based on legally established procedures," he added.
Investigators are currently checking his contacts, including in social networks where he could be recruited by some extremist and terrorist organizations.
Terror attack in St. Petersburg: Facts, theories, and opinions
"According to preliminary information, he could be linked to Syrian militants. Investigators are establishing whether or not he travelled to Syria to take part in hostilities. However, he could be supervised via the Internet where he could receive instructions on how to make bombs," the source said.
Russian Investigative Committee Spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, earlier said that the committee’s Chairman, Alexander Bastrykin, issued instructions to thoroughly investigate all circumstances of the tragedy in St. Petersburg and to check all information about the suspect, including to scrutinize his contacts for possible accomplices who are members of the Islamic State terror group outlawed in Russia.
An explosive device of an unknown type went off at on April 3 afternoon on a subway train in St. Petersburg. The Russian Investigative Committee described the blast as a terrorist attack. According to the Russian Health Ministry’s latest casualty figures, the explosion left 14 people dead and 49 injured.