NEWSLINE PAPER,- Unexpectedly, four individuals who are thought to be the masterminds of the deadly attack at a Moscow music hall have been charged with terrorism and brought before the court. Following the horrific death toll of 139, the Kremlin's security agencies have come under heavy fire for failing to stop the atrocity.
A Moscow courtroom saw the suspects brought in late on Sunday night. Three of them looked obviously upset, and a wheelchair was provided for the fourth, who appeared to be unresponsive.
The accused, who have been named Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, are Tajikstani nationals. On temporary or expired visas, they had been working in Russia. A life sentence is theirs if found guilty.
They are accused of lighting the Crocus City Hall on fire, shooting bystanders randomly and invading the building in a Moscow suburb. A result of the fire, the roof collapsed, trapping concertgoers within.
The slaughter was claimed by ISIS, which also made horrific video of the event public. Without any proof, Moscow has suggested, meanwhile, that the attackers intended to flee to Ukraine. Kiev has angrily rejected this assertion, calling it "absurd."
"Radical Islamists" were blamed for the incident by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a Monday meeting with government leaders. “We know that the crime was committed by radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries,” he said.
Mirzoyev, the first accused, showed up for court with obvious injuries, including bruises on his face and a black eye. His neck was also encircled with a plastic bag. Russian state media RIA Novosti reports that Mirzoyev, 32, had a temporary residency visa in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk that had expired after three months.
Born in 1994, Rachabalizoda mentioned to the court, via an interpreter, that he had Russian registration papers but could not recall where they were. He showed up in court with a bandaged ear and an enlarged eye.
Fariduni, the third defendant, was registered in Krasnogorsk, which is close to Moscow, and worked at a plant in the industrial city of Podolsk.
According to Russian media accounts, the three individuals entered guilty pleas to the terrorism accusations. It remained unknown what the fourth man, 2004-born Faizov, pleaded. He was seen sluggishly reclining in a wheelchair within a glass cage.
The men entered the courtroom looking battered and hurt. Videos and still photos that seemed to depict several of them being brutally questioned—one apparently involving electrocution—were extensively shared on Russian social media.
A camouflage-wearing interpreter is shown in one video holding Rachabalizoda down and stuffing a portion of his ear into his mouth.
RT's chief editor, Margarita Simonyan, uploaded a video of Rachabalizoda showing up in court with a heavily bandaged ear.