Court arrests eleventh suspect in Moscow terror attack case
An eleventh suspect has been put under arrest over the March 23 terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, the press service of the Moscow criminal courts said in a statement on Friday. The man was charged with committing a deadly terrorist act, but his alleged role has not been revealed to the public.
The individual was identified as Muhammad Zoir Sharipzoda, a Tajik national. The Basmanny District Court has ordered that he remain in custody at least until May 22, the statement said. Russian media reports claim that Sharipzoda was instrumental in preparing the attack but no specific details have been provided.
The decision came a day after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported detaining three new suspects in connection with the massacre. The arrests were made in Moscow, Ekaterinburg, and Omsk, according to a statement by the agency. Two of those detained were foreigners and one was a Russian citizen. All of them originated from Central Asia, the FSB said.
One of the suspects detained on Thursday was allegedly directly involved in recruiting the four suspected perpetrators of the attack and handled the financing of the assault. Two others contributed the money that was later spent to acquire the weapons and vehicle used by the assailants, according to the security services. It is unclear if Sharipzoda was one of the three suspects detained on Thursday.
The attack on the Crocus City Hall outside of Moscow claimed more than 140 lives. The four gunmen stormed the venue shooting everyone in sight before setting it on fire. The primary suspects in the attack were detained hours after the incident. The FSB then reported making a total of 11 arrests in the following days.
Russian officials described the perpetrators as radical Islamists but stated that the crime could have been organized by Ukrainian intelligence services, who used them as proxies. Earlier on Friday, investigators said that pro-Ukraine images had been found on one of the suspected attackers’ cell phones.
Kiev and its Western backers have denied all the accusations.
