Terrorists behind concert massacre in Russia tortured before hearings

The four individuals suspected of carrying out the massacre at the concert hall in Moscow were brought to a court in Moscow on Monday with severe signs of torture visible on their bodies at the end of their interrogation by the Russian security forces.

The four, accused of terrorism, opened fire in several directions at the Crocus City Hall music venue on Friday and murdered at least 137 people. Although Islamic State accepted responsibility for the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials tried to tie the attack to Ukraine, which strongly rejects the accusation. 

The four terrorists have been identified by Russian authorities as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov. All four are citizens of Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia with a majority Muslim population. Three of them were marched into the courtroom by masked policemen, and the fourth was brought in to court in a wheelchair.

Since the four terrorists were captured on Saturday morning, documents have been published on social media in which they are seen undergoing violent interrogations. In one of them, Fariduni can be seen handcuffed on the floor, with his pants pulled down and cables attached to his genitals.

Mirzoyev were seen in the courtroom with bruised eyes, and had a plastic bag around his neck and Rachabalizoda's ear was tightly bandaged. According to reports, after he was caught, his ear was cut off and placed in his mouth. 

The face of another terrorist, Fariduni, was badly swollen, and Fayzov appeared unconscious as he was wheeled into the courtroom while wearing a hospital gown. One of his eyes was missing.

All four were put in a cage behind a glass window during the hearing, under the security of masked police officers. According to the court's announcement, two of them - Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda - pleaded guilty. All will remain in custody at least until May 22. Seven other individuals were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack.

Russia's worst terror attack in years

The attack, which is one of Russia’s worst in over 20 years, took place on Friday evening, when the four terrorists stormed the concert hall in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow, where around 6,000 people gathered for a rock show. The terrorists began to shoot at the crowd indiscriminately and set the venue on fire, which led to the collapse of the roof.

Under the cover of the chaos and terror that prevailed there, the four terrorists managed to escape and were captured only after 14 hours, in the Bryansk Oblast, about 400 km. from Moscow. 

Russia was quick to claim that they had made their way to Ukraine, where he claimed they had contacts. Kyiv responded with fury, claiming that this was an attempt by the Kremlin to divert discussions from the security failure that led to the massacre.

"Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame someone else," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said angrily Sunday. Ukrainian military intelligence said it was "absurd" to think the terrorists actually tried to cross the border heavily condensed with landmines, through hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers, to reach safety in Ukraine.

Washington warned Moscow

American officials said after the attack that ISIS's acceptance of responsibility, which has long targeted Russia, was reliable. They added that Washington sent a warning to Moscow about the threats of attacks in crowded places in the capital, but were rejected by the Kremlin, as President Vladimir Putin even claimed that they were part of a conspiracy designed to influence the presidential elections.

"ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Sunday. "There was no Ukrainian involvement."

Despite this, Moscow continued to doubt the responsibility of ISIS for the attack. "Pay attention - a question for the White House: Are you sure it's ISIS? Maybe think about it again?" wrote the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in an article in a local newspaper.

She claimed that the United States is spreading a version of ISIS "terror" to impose on its influence on Kyiv. She reminded readers of Washington's support for the Mujahideen fighters who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

ISIS and other Islamist terrorist organizations have already succeeded in carrying out severe attacks in Russia or against Russian targets abroad.

In 2015, ISIS claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian plane flying over Egypt, with 224 passengers, most of them civilians, in retaliation for its support for Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

In 2017, the group claimed responsibility for an explosion at a subway station in St. Petersburg that killed 15 people.

Friday's terror attack was the deadliest in Russia since the Beslan school siege in 2004, when Islamist militants took more than a thousand people hostage. 334 people were killed, more than half of them children.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that Russia will target those responsible for the attack, wherever they are and whoever they are. He also spoke of the need for "death to be met with death" as several members of parliament began to discuss the possibility of renewing the death penalty.

On Sunday, Russia marked a day of national mourning, with billboards across Moscow displaying a picture of a single candle, the date of the attack and the words "We mourn." Countries around the world - including the United States and Western countries in conflict with Russia over the war in Moscow - expressed shock at the attack and sent their condolences to the Russian people.