'Bribe' got bomber on Russian jet
From CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- One of two female suicide bombers who set off explosives on Russian passenger jets, killing all 89 aboard, bribed her way aboard the plane, according to Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov.
Ustinov made his comments on the August 24 crash in an interview with Interfax news agency and the Russian newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
The prosecutor general said a man identified by his last name as Artyunov was illegally selling airline tickets at the airport. He helped the two women obtain tickets after taking 2,000 rubles ($69) from one and 3,000 rubles ($103) from the other.
He then bribed a Siberia Airlines official responsible for controlling passenger registration and boarding by paying him 1,000 rubles ($35). The suicide bomber was able to board the plane en route to the southern Russian town of Sochi.
The prosecutor general also said the two women, identified as Aminat Nagayeva and Satsia Dzhebirkhanova, from Grozny, Chechnya, earlier had been taken into custody when they arrived at Moscow's Domodeveo airport accompanied by two Chechen men.
Police officers confiscated their passports and handed them over to a police captain responsible for anti-terrorist operations for a further check. The captain let them go without checking them and they set about obtaining tickets for the later flights in the same building.
Both the man illegally selling tickets and the Siberia Airlines official have been arrested, according to Ustinov.
The crashes took place ahead of a regional election in the rebellious southern territory of Chechnya, where Russian troops have battled separatist guerrillas since 1994.
Chechen voters elected a new president, Alu Alkhanov, following the assassination in May of then-President Akhmad Kadyrov. (Full story)
Days later, in the southern Russian town of Beslan, a group of 32 terrorists stormed a school and took about 1,200 adults and children captive in a 48-hour siege that ended with the deaths of at least 335 hostages, about half of them children. (Full story)
The hostages were killed on the morning of September 3 when a standoff between Russian troops and the hostage-takers came to a bloody end, with terrorists setting off bombs in the gymnasium where most of the hostages were held and shooting those who tried to flee.
Russian prosecutors have charged a Chechen man with terrorism and murder in the Beslan siege, AP quoted the Interfax news agency as reporting.
