Four suspects charged with acts of terrorism in connection with the attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that left 137 people dead have been sent to pretrial detention for two months pending trial, a Moscow court ruled late on March 24.
The Basmanny district court named the suspects as Saidakram Rajabalizoda, Dalerjon Mirzoev, Muhammadsobir Faizov, and Faridun Shamsiddin and said they are Tajik citizens. The court said three of the four men — Mirzoev, Rajabalizoda, and Shamsiddin — all admitted guilt after being charged.
Faizov was brought to court directly from a hospital in a wheelchair and sat with his eyes closed throughout the proceedings, the Associated Press reported. He had multiple cuts and was attended by medics while in court, the AP said.
The suspects were provided with translators after arriving in the courtroom with bruises and smears of blood on their swollen faces. Rajabalizoda, whose ear was reportedly cut off during his arrest, had a bandage on the right side of his head. But there was no official confirmation that his ear had been severed, and forensic photographs do not show the side of his head with the injury.
The investigators cited the need to maintain the secrecy of the investigation and the safety of the participants and their relatives in requesting that the hearings be held behind closed doors.
During the part of the hearing that was not held in secret, it was disclosed that Mirzoev is registered in Novosibirsk, Russia, and is 32 years old. He is married and has four children, including 18-month-old twins.
Rajabalizoda said that he is 30 years old, married, and has a child.
The four men are among 11 people that Russian authorities said they arrested in connection with the attack on March 22 at the Crocus City Hall in the city of Krasnogorsk in the Moscow region.
Earlier on March 24, Russia observed a national day of mourning for the victims of the attack, which also injured more than 180 people and left survivors with stories of narrow escapes and the desperate measures they took to get away.
Flags were lowered to half-staff across the country as Russians placed flowers at makeshift memorials. Entertainment events were canceled as were entertainment programming and advertising on television.
Members of the rock band Piknik, which had been due to perform when the attack happened, were among those who paid tribute to the victims. They laid flowers in front of the Crocus City Hall late on March 24, expressing their condolences to the bereaved families after observing a moment of silence, TASS reported. The band said earlier that one of its employees was among those killed.
“This atrocity is a senseless, unimaginable cruelty,” band leader Edmund Shklyarsky said.
Authorities raised the number of injured to 180 people, according to TASS. They also said that at least three of those killed were children.
Then-And-Now Images Suggest Severe Abuse Of Moscow Terror Suspects
Images taken as four Tajik men suspected of committing the Crocus City Hall shooting near Moscow were apprehended in western Russia on March 23 are starkly different from how the men appeared — battered and bruised — in court the following day.
Heavy equipment was seen at the concert hall, clearing debris and dismantling structures damaged in a fire that erupted after the shooting, which according to authorities was carried out by four camouflaged gunmen at the concert hall. The Islamic State (IS) militant group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Russian Investigative Committee said 137 bodies had been recovered. So far, 62 have been positively identified.
The deaths were caused by gunshot wounds or asphyxiation from burning materials, the Russian Investigative Committee said on March 23. The attackers used an unspecified flammable substance to set fire to the venue, officials said.
A man who was at the Crocus City Hall on the night of the attack told RFE/RL that he and his friend arrived at around 7:30 p.m. and saw that the line to get in was long and moving slowly as concertgoers passed through metal detectors and opened their bags for inspection.
The man, who identified himself as Igor, said he and his friend decided to skip having a drink and went straight into the auditorium. Later as they fled the venue, they saw the bodies of people who had been at the bar and realized that the decision had probably saved their lives.
They tried first to hide in the restroom, but when they opened the door, they saw bodies. Their attempt to flee became more desperate when the fire broke out and it was unclear where they should run.
“It was impossible to see the green arrows. We clung to a man who knew the Crocus well, and he led us out. We got into the car and rushed out of there,” said Igor, who added that he is now staying home and taking time off from his job.
A woman who identified herself as Oksana and who was also at the concert hall the night of the attack told RFE/RL that she and her husband were still in the cloakroom when the gunfire started. She stumbled in the rush of people fleeing and was separated from her husband. When the two found each other again, they initially fled into a restroom.
“Later, I found out that we were lucky: they shot some of those hiding in the toilets,” she said.
The fire then started spreading dramatically, she said, and it became impossible to breathe, so she, her husband, and the group they were with decided to get out by breaking windows.
“We woke up at home. Everything was covered in blood. It was not clear whether it was our own or someone else’s,” she said, adding that she was incredulous that it happened and was only able to recall all the details when prompted by her husband.
“It’s a nightmare. I’m not going anywhere at all now. I’m ready to quit just to stay at home. I don’t trust anyone now,” she said.
In response to the attack, Pope Francis sent prayers to the victims of the violence, which he called a “cowardly terrorist attack.” Speaking after leading Palm Sunday Mass on St. Peter’s Square, the Catholic pontiff prayed that God would “comfort their families and convert the hearts of those…who organize and carry out these inhumane actions….”
The IS-connected Amak news agency released a photograph on March 23 of four men it said had carried out the attack. Russian investigative journalists said the clothing of the men matched that worn by the men being detained and interrogated in videos released by Russian law enforcement.
Also on March 23, Amak released a video purportedly made by one of the militants during the attack. The graphic video showed people being shot by automatic-weapons fire as the militants shouted Islamic slogans.
Russian President Vladimir Putin decried the violence as a “bloody, barbaric terrorist attack” in an address on March 23, but he did not mention the claim of responsibility by IS. Instead, he claimed involvement by Ukraine, an allegation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials vehemently denied.
U.S. officials on March 24 reemphasized that Ukraine had no involvement in the massacre.
Islamic State “bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview broadcast on March 24 also said there was no evidence that Ukraine was involved.
“ISIS-K is actually, by all accounts, responsible for what happened,” she said, referring to Islamic State-Khorasan, the branch of IS in Afghanistan and Pakistan.