One of the deadliest attacks in the capital since the Russian-Chechen wars of the 1990s and 2000s, the trial has begun for 19 defendants who are accused of being involved in the 2024 shooting attack at a Moscow concert hall, which left 149 people dead and over 600 injured.
As they sat in the defendants’ cage on Monday, the suspects who were appearing in court were seated with heavy security kept their heads bowed.
The Crocus City Hall concert venue was targeted by an ISIL (ISIS) affiliate because four gunmen shot people waiting for a rock band performance and then set the building on fire on March 22, 2024. The attack was blamed on ISIL’s Afghan affiliate, also known as ISKP (ISIS-K).
Ukraine was implicated in the attack, according to President Putin, Vladimir Putin, and other Russian officials, without providing any supporting evidence, Kyiv has vehemently refuted.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigation body, came to the conclusion in June that the attack had been “planned and carried out in the interests of the current leadership of Ukraine in order to destabilize the political situation in our country.” The four suspected gunmen tried to flee to Ukraine afterward, according to the report.
The four, who were all Tajik nationals, were taken into custody shortly after the attack and later showed signs of being beaten.
Six additional suspects were charged in absentia and put on Russia’s wanted list, according to the committee’s report from earlier this year, allegedly for recruiting and organizing the four’s training. The trial’s other defendants were charged with aiding them.
In a move to put an end to Putin’s separatist southern republic, around 40 rebels from Chechnya stormed the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow in 2002 and hostage 800 people.
Source: Aljazeera
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