Russia charges 4 suspects in deadly Moscow Concert Hall attack

• Ukraine denies involvement in concert tragedy.
• Putin vows to punish all those behind the attack.
  
• Over 100 people remain in hospital.

MOSCOW: Russia flew its flags at half-mast for a day of mourning and charged four men it accused of shooting dozens of people at a concert outside Moscow on Friday night, in Russia’s deadliest attack in two decades.

President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a day of national mourning after vowing to punish all those behind the attack, which killed 137 people, including three children, and injured 182.

More than 100 people remained in hospital, some of them in serious condition. The video shows a grieving Putin lighting a candle in a church at his residence outside Moscow on Sunday night to honor those who died.

Earlier Sunday, people laid flowers at Crocus City Hall, the 6,200-seat concert hall outside Moscow, where four armed men stormed just before the Soviet-era rock band Picnic was to perform their hit “Afraid of Nothing.” The men fired their automatic weapons in short bursts at civilians who fell screaming.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, but Putin did not publicly name the militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said were trying to flee to Ukraine. He said some on the “Ukrainian side” had prepared to push the gunmen across the border.

Ukraine has denied any role in the attack.

Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Sunday charged four suspects with acts of terrorism in connection with the attack, naming them as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Fayzov, according to the Moscow courts’ official Telegram channel.

It said the men, identified by Russian media as citizens of the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan living in Russia, would be remanded in custody until May 22. Three of the four had pleaded guilty to all charges, it said.

After unverified and brutal videos of suspect interrogations circulated on social media, courtroom images released by Russian media showed one suspect brought in in a wheelchair and apparently missing an eye, another had a bandage where supposed to be his right ear, another had a black eye and a torn plastic bag around his neck, and a fourth suspect with a swollen face appeared disoriented and struggling to keep his eyes open.

Friday’s attack was the deadliest on Russian soil since the Beslan school siege in 2004, when militants took more than 1,000 people hostage. More than 300 people died at that time, more than half of them children.

Dmitry Medvedev, vice president of Russia’s Security Council, said Russia would target those behind the deadly shooting wherever and whoever they are.

He had previously spoken of the need to meet “death with death,” and some lawmakers began debating whether the death penalty should be reinstated.

Across Moscow, billboards bore an image of a single candle, the date of the attack and the words “We mourn.”

Countries around the world expressed their horror at the attack and sent their condolences to the Russian people.

Armed

Putin said 11 people were arrested, including the four suspected gunmen, who fled the concert hall and headed for the Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow.

“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Putin said.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were arrested near the border.

Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which he called a special military operation needed to protect Russia and Russian-speakers in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Putin of seeking to deflect blame for the concert hall attack by referring to Ukraine.

Daesh, the militant group that once sought control over parts of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack in a Telegram statement from the group’s Amaq news agency. On Saturday night, Daesh posted what it said was footage of the attack on its Telegram channels.

In videos released by Russian media and Telegram channels with close ties to the Kremlin, one of the suspects said he was offered money to carry out the attack.

“I shot people,” said the suspect, his hands bound and his hair held by an interrogator, a black boot under his chin, he said in poor and heavily accented Russian.

When asked why, he said: “For money.” The man said he had been promised half a million rubles (just over $5,000). One appeared to answer questions through a Tajik translator.

Unverified footage posted on Russian Telegram channels appeared to show one of the suspects being tortured with electric shocks in custody. Reuters could not verify its authenticity.

“No involvement of Ukraine”

The White House said the US government shared information with Russia earlier this month about a planned attack on Moscow and issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7. He said Daesh had sole responsibility for the attack.

“There was no Ukrainian involvement,” said US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

Russian officials have been irritated by the US public’s comments about the attack, the first of which came shortly after news of the attack, and say Russian investigators should be allowed to make their own findings.