The four alleged perpetrators of the attack on the Crocus City Hall, near Moscow, which left 137 dead on Friday, were brought this Sunday night before a court in the Russian capital, which has ordered preventive detention for all of them for two months. The imprisonment, set until May 22, may be extended pending his trial, the date of which has not yet been determined. The suspects have been charged with “terrorism” and face life in prison. In total, Russian security forces have detained eleven people linked to the attack, four of whom personally participated in the massacre, according to authorities.
Moscow’s Basmanny Court released a video showing police officers leading three of the suspects into the courtroom in handcuffs, and later photographs showing them sitting in the glass cage reserved for the accused. The fourth arrived in a wheelchair, with his eyes closed. One of the suspects had a white bandage on his ear, as in videos prior to the arrest of the alleged attackers released on Saturday by investigators, where three of them appeared with blood on their faces.
The first to appear before the judge were two men identified as Saidakrami Rachabalizoda and Dalerdzhon Mirzoev. The latter said that he is a citizen of Tajikistan and that he has three minor children. In addition, he explained that he fully recognized his guilt and that he lived in the Moscow region with residence documents that had expired three months ago. He has no criminal record, Russian media note.
Rachabalizoda, 30, also admitted guilt. He is married, has a child and does not have a criminal record.
The other two suspects in the terrorist attack who were taken this Sunday to Moscow’s Basmanny court after their arrest on Saturday in the Russian region of Bryansk are Fariduni Shamsudin and Muhammadsobir Faizov.
Faizov, 19, was wearing a white coat and was accompanied by two doctors as he was brought to court from a hospital, where he was admitted after being injured during his arrest.
Shamsudin told the judge that he worked in a factory in the Moscow region and has an eight-month-old son. While Faizov, who is not married, stated that he previously worked as a hairdresser in the city of Ivanovo and was currently unemployed.
The attack on the concert hall and shopping center near the capital was claimed by the jihadist organization Islamic State of Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the terrorist group, but Russian authorities presented a Ukrainian tip, saying the attackers were trying to go to Ukraine, where they had contacts.
Ukraine strongly denies any involvement in this attack, the deadliest in Russia since the early 2000s.
