Moscow attack suspects in court on terror charges

The men charged over the Moscow concert hall attack showed signs of having been beaten, while the youngest was brought into court in a wheelchair.

A man suspected of taking part in the attack sits in the defendant cage as he waits for his pre-trial detention hearing at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow. Picture: AFP.

Four men accused of involvement in a massacre at a Moscow concert hall that killed 137 people have been remanded in custody Sunday, as Russia observed a national day of mourning following the attack claimed by the Islamic State.

The four men showed signs of beating: one, who allegedly had his ear cut off by his captors, appeared with a bandage around his head while the youngest man was wheeled into court in a wheelchair, with catheter showing under his clothes. A urine bag was on his lap.

The other two men had clear signs of bruising on their faces and heads.

The youngest suspect was in a wheelchair with a catheter and urine bag on his lap. AFP)

One of the terror suspects in court. Picture: AFP.

The four, aged from 19 to 25, have been charged with terrorism, according to Moscow’s Basmanny district court, and face life imprisonment. Their detention is set until May 22 but may be extended depending on the date of their trial.

The court said two of the defendants had pleaded guilty, and one of them, from Tajikistan, had “entirely acknowledged his guilt”.

Three of the men were married with children, according to Russia’s Baza website.

President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack”, and on Saturday said the four gunmen had been arrested while trying to flee to Ukraine. Kyiv has strongly denied any connection to the attack.

Putin has made no public reference to the Islamic State (IS) group’s claims of responsibility.

The court released video of the men being brought into the courtroom and sitting in the defendant’s cage.

Authorities said the suspects were foreign nationals.

According to Russian media and parliament member Alexander Khinstein, some of the suspects are from Tajikistan, a majority-Muslim former Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan.

It came as the White House declared Ukraine had “no involvement whatsoever” in the massacre after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a Kyiv connection.

“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, which has claimed the attack.

There was “no” evidence that Ukraine was involved, agreed Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” that was aired Sunday.

“ISIS-K is actually, by all accounts, responsible for what happened,” she said.

The “K” refers to Khorasan, with the attack being claimed by IS’s branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

At least 137 people were killed when camouflaged gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s northern suburb of Krasnogorsk, and then set fire to the building on Friday evening.

Law enforcement officers escory a man suspected of taking part in the attack. Picture: AFP.

The Islamic State group on Saturday wrote on Telegram that the attack was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs,” as part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam.”

A video lasting about a minute and half apparently shot by the gunmen has been posted on social media accounts typically used by IS, according to the SITE intelligence group.

Putin has vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack” – but in his only public remarks on the massacre he made no reference to IS’s claims of responsibility.

Instead he said four gunmen trying to flee to Ukraine had been arrested. “They tried to escape and were travelling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said in a televised address to the nation on Saturday.

A man suspected of taking part in the attack of a concert hall is escorted by Russian law enforcement officers into a Moscow court. Picture: AFP.

In a statement, Putin compared the attackers to “Nazis,” an echo of his rhetoric against the Ukrainians.

And Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state broadcaster RT, claimed the perpetrators had been “chosen in a way to convince the stupid global public that it was ISIS”. She said Western that ISIS was responsible “before the arrests and the identities of the perpetrators were known” was evidence the US and Ukraine were behind the attack.

Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of trying to shift the blame onto them.

IS-K is a Sunni militant group that emerged from Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province around 2015, and hopes to install a hardcore Islamic caliphate spanning India, Iran and Central Asia.

The group has carried out dozens of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Under the Taliban, which regards it as an enemy, analysts say its efficacy inside Afghanistan has been eroded – but that in recent months it has stepped up its activities globally.

AFP