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Organizers of bomb attack killing 19 in N.Caucasus appeal verdict

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MOSCOW, January 8 (RIA Novosti) - The organizers of a bomb attack at a military air field in Russia's North Caucasus, which killed 19 people in June 2003, have appealed against the court ruling, the country's Supreme Court said Sunday.

"The four people, who were found guilty of engineering a blast on a bus with the military, have lodged their appeals, requesting either more lenient sentences or not-guilty verdicts," a court official said, adding that the federal Supreme Court would consider the appeals January 18.

On March 11, the Supreme Court of North Ossetia, Russia's republic in the North Caucasus, passed a life sentence for one of the four defendants, all aged 25-29, a 25-year sentence for another one, and 11.5 years for the other two.

The four men were convicted for organizing an attack on June 5, 2003 when a woman blew up a bus by defusing the explosives strapped to her body, killing 19 and wounding 24 military officers of the local airfield in Mozdok.

During the trial, one of the convicts admitted that he and one of his associates had bought two houses in Kabardino-Balkaria, a Russian North Caucasus republic, with the money of Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted warlord. The houses were used to accommodate and cure bandits.

According to the defendant, Basayev was hiding in one of the houses with his wife and two bodyguards in August 2003 for two weeks. Last August, federal officers surrounded the house but Basayev fled the siege.

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