St. Petersburg attack suspect: 'Only executing commands'

April 18 (UPI) -- A man arrested in connection with the St. Petersburg subway bombing said Tuesday in a Moscow courtroom he was only "given orders" and denied he was one of the attack's masterminds.

Abror Azimov, who was born in Kyrgyzstan, was arrested Monday in Moscow and trained the suicide bomber, the Russian Federal Security Service said.

Before the hearing, his attorney, Armen Zadoyan, told Tass the suspect "admitted his guilt in full" in the bombing between two train stations that killed 14 people on April 3.

Akbarzhon Jalilov detonated the bomb and died in the explosion, authorities said.

FSS said Azimov was born in 1990 in Central Asia. The other eight people detained in connection with the attack are also from that part of Asia.

FSS officials said they believe Azimov trained Jalilov, who was born in Kyrgyzstan.

"I do not deny my participation, but I was not directly involved," Azimov said in court. "I did not know what I was doing as I was only executing commands, which I received."

He said he was married and had one child, Vesti TV news reported.

In Jalilov's phone contacts, authorities found Azimov's cellphone number, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

Firearms and ammunition that belonged to Azimov were seized, said Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee.

Azimov was detained in the Moscow Region and his exact role in the crime was being established, Petrenko said Monday.