An eighth suspect in the attack committed Friday evening near Moscow was placed in pre-trial detention on Tuesday March 26 by a court in the Russian capital, its press service announced on Telegram. “A Moscow court has placed under arrest another participant in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall,” a concert hall in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow, where at least 139 people died, the authorities announced. judicial authorities without detailing what this individual is accused of.
The four suspected attackers were arrested on Saturday and were remanded in custody on Sunday after appearing in court in the capital. They are accused of “terrorism” and face life imprisonment. Their pre-trial detention, set until May 22, may be extended pending their trial, the date of which has not yet been set. According to the court, two of the accused pleaded guilty. One of them, a native of Tajikistan, “fully admitted his guilt.” Three other suspects were remanded in custody on Monday. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, it concerns a father and two of his sons, one of whom, born in Tajikistan, holds Russian nationality.
According to authorities, the eighth suspect is from Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country neighboring Tajikistan. According to the Interfax agency, he is 31 years old and has Russian nationality. During the hearing, he claimed that he did not know the defendants accused of planning the attack and that he was not aware of their plans.
This terrorist attack is the deadliest in the country in twenty years. After the Kremlin spokesperson refused to comment on the claim of the Islamic State in Khorasan (EI-K), an Afghan branch of the organization, Vladimir Putin attributed the attack Monday evening to “ radical Islamists”, while continuing to evoke a Ukrainian track rejected by kyiv and the West.
Putin is “a sick, cynical creature”
“We know that [this] crime was committed by radical Islamists with an ideology that the Islamic world itself has been fighting against for centuries,” he told a government meeting, citing the link to the first time, three days after ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. “We know who committed this atrocity against Russia and its people. What interests us is the sponsor,” he added. “It is important to answer the question of why the terrorists, after their crime, tried to leave for Ukraine. Who was waiting for them there? “, he asked.
“This atrocity may be a new episode in the series of attempts of those who, since 2014, have been fighting our country through the neo-Nazi regime in kyiv,” the Russian leader added. “And the Nazis, as is well known, never disdained using the dirtiest and most inhumane methods to achieve their goals,” Mr. Putin said, repeating his narrative that the Russian offensive in Ukraine is aimed to overthrow a neo-Nazi regime.
“Putin is talking to himself again, and it was broadcast on television again. And again he blames Ukraine. He is a sick and cynical creature,” reacted Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily speech Monday evening.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Mr. Zelensky was a “bit of a special” Jew, in response to a question about the likelihood that he and Ukraine could be linked to the jihadists who claimed responsibility for the attack. “[He is] a Jew who, in many ways, shows sympathy and a penchant for the nationalist spirit that permeates the leaders of the Kiev regime,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman.
Mr. Peskov declined to provide further details. “When investigators deem it appropriate and possible, information will of course be provided,” he assured. “As long as the investigation is ongoing, the official authorities cannot afford to make any statements on this subject,” Peskov said.
