TAJIKISTAN ARRESTS NINE PEOPLE IN CONNECTION WITH MOSCOW CONCERT HALL ATTACK

Lutfulloi Nazrimad, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall shooting, stands in a glass cage in the Basmanny District Court in Moscow [Basmanny District Court press service via AP]

Sat 30 March 2024:

Nine people have been detained by Tajikistan’s national security service on suspicion of having links with the gunmen who attacked a concert theater in a Moscow suburb last week, killing 144 people, Russian state media reported.

“Nine residents of the Vakhdat district were detained for contact with the persons who committed the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall on March 22,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday, citing information from an unnamed source in Tajikistan’s special services, who said that Russian security forces were also involved in the operation to detain the suspects.

Vakhdat is located east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

According to RIA Novosti, those detained are accused of having connections to ISIL (ISIS).

This occurred as a Moscow court charged another suspect in the deadly concert hall attack, Lutfulloi Nazrimad, and ordered that he be detained in custody until at least May 22, pending an investigation and trial.

According to the Russian independent news site Mediazona, Nazrimad claimed in court that he was born in Tajikistan.

Nazrimad is the eighth suspect to appear in court.

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow, said that 24-year-old Nazrimad was charged with conspiracy to conduct acts of terrorism, and that he pleaded guilty to some of the charges, according to his lawyer.

Russian officials previously said that 11 suspects had been arrested in the country, including four who allegedly carried out the attack.

Those four, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.

Russia’s Investigative Committee additionally said on Thursday that it had detained another suspect in relation to the raid on Crocus City Hall on suspicion of being involved in financing the attack. It did not give further details of the suspect’s identity or alleged actions.

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A faction of ISIL has claimed responsibility for the massacre. But Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have persistently claimed that Ukraine and the West had a role in the attack.

Al Jazeera’s Jabbari reported that the detentions come at a time when Russia’s investigative committee has announced it has evidence – which it has not shared with the public – about “connections between funds received in cash and cryptocurrency from Ukrainian people or nationals to the perpetrators of this attack”.

Moscow is allegedly using the accusation against Ukraine as a justification to escalate hostilities there, according to Ukrainian officials, who have denied any involvement.

According to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, the death toll from the concert hall attack has continued to increase, reaching 144 on Friday following the hospitalization of a badly injured victim.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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