Two of four suspects have pleaded guilty to appearing in court on charges of terrorist offences following the attack on a concert hall near Moscow that killed more than 130 people, Russian media reported.
Russian authorities said all four suspects, all natives of Tajikistan, were remanded in custody until at least 22 May, after which they will appear in court.
Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, 32, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, 30, Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov, 19, appeared in Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Sunday.
Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda pleaded guilty after being charged. A fourth suspect, Fayzov, was taken to court directly from the hospital in a wheelchair.
A branch of the Islamic State (IS) group, IS-K, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack. Russian authorities said the men were trying to flee to Ukraine when they were arrested.
Russian security services have published a video of the detention and interrogation of the terrorists, two of whom were caught in the Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine. One of them said he intended to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border. Another perpetrator was apprehended near the scene.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who received extensive FSB (Federal Security Service in Russia) reports on the arrest of 11 people linked to the incident, said there was a Ukrainian trail in the attack. In his address to Russians, he said that “all the direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained,” adding that they “tried to escape and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”
Meanwhile, the US refuses to link the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow to the conflict between Russia and the West in Ukraine and suggests that the terrorist group ISIS-Khorasan was behind the attack.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said that Ukraine had nothing to do with the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall. Watson noted that the US “shared information with Russia about the planned terrorist attack in Moscow,” a warning made in accordance with a long-standing policy obliging the transfer of such intelligence information.
US Vice President Kamala Harris said that the sole responsibility lies, she emphasised, with the “Islamic State”. There is no evidence of Ukraine’s involvement, she stressed.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian security services have no contacts with Western countries in connection with the investigation into the terrorist attack in Crocus. He told reporters:
“There are no contacts with Westerners at the moment. The President has had many telephone conversations with the leaders of different countries: Belarus, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The intention to strengthen and improve co-operation in the fight against terrorism was expressed.”
The death toll from the attack on a rock concert by the band Picnic at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk on Friday night has risen to 137. At least 154 people were injured.
