An eighth person, suspected of being involved in the March 22 attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow claimed by the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS), was jailed today by the Russian authorities, who accuse “Western secret services” of complicity in the massacre, while the Turkish “lead” makes its way.
The director of the internal security services of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, declared that “Western secret services and Ukrainian secret services” are “connected” to the attack in Moscow, carried out by some “radical Islamists”. By Bortnikov's own admission, however, the instigators have not yet been identified.
It also emerged that, before the massacre, two of the alleged attackers were traveling freely between Russia and Turkey, which today arrested 147 alleged ISIS members.
The arrests
“A Moscow court has placed under arrest another participant in the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall,” reads a statement published today on Telegram from the Basmannyj District Court. The man, born in Kyrgyzstan and identified as Alisher Khatamovich Kasimov, will remain in prison “for a period of 1 month and 27 days, i.e. until May 22, 2024”.
The suspect, according to the news agency Interfaxhe is 31 years old and owns Russian citizenship. In fact, immediately after the arrest was validated, the press office of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry specified that the man renounced his original citizenship in 2014.
During the hearing, published on video by the Russian Court, the suspect stated that he did not know the other defendants accused of planning the attack in Moscow and that he knew nothing of their plans. “I needed a tenant, I wanted to rent an apartment,” Kasimov said in court, that he had come into contact with the alleged perpetrators of the massacre through a real estate rental site.
So far, eleven people have been arrested in Russia on suspicion of being involved in various capacities in the attack in Moscow, which saw some armed men in camouflage break into the Crocus City Hall concert hall and open fire on the unarmed audience, subsequently giving fire to the building and causing the death of at least 139 people and the injury of 182 others.
The four alleged perpetrators of the attack were arrested on Saturday 23 March and risk life imprisonment. At least one of them is from Tajikistan. Three more suspects were arrested on Monday 25 March. According to the news agency Ria Novosti he is a father with two sons, one of whom, born in Tajikistan, is a Russian citizen. In total, to date, eight people are in prison on terrorism charges.
Moscow's accusations
However, as reported Interfaxthe instigators of the attack in Moscow have not yet been identified, even if the Kremlin points the finger not only against Ukraine but also against the “Western secret services”.
“We believe that the action was prepared both by the radical Islamists themselves (arrested, ed.) and, of course, by the Western secret services and the Ukrainian secret services themselves, which are directly linked to this attack,” he said. said today at a press conference the director of the internal security services of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov. “In the future, we will do everything necessary to identify the instigators.”
Yesterday, for the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the “Islamist” origin of the attack, but continued to accuse Kiev. “We know that the crime was committed at the hands of some radical Islamists, whose ideology has been fought for centuries by the Islamic world itself,” he said. said yesterday Putin during a television program, without giving up on attacking Ukraine. “This atrocity could be just the link in a whole series of attempted attacks by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 at the hands of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.”
The Turkish “track”
Meanwhile, as reported by the French press agency Afpit emerged that two of the alleged attackers were traveling freely between Russia and Turkey before the massacre.
“The two individuals were free to travel unhindered between Russia and Turkey in the absence of an arrest warrant against them,” he explained to Afp an official of the Turkish security forces, who did not specify the nationality of the two alleged attackers.
Shamsidin Fariduni, according to the source cited by the French press agency, entered Turkey on 20 February and then left on 2 March for Russia from Istanbul airport, after a stay in a hotel in the Fatih district of the city. February 23, second Afpthe man allegedly published “eight social media posts from the Aksaray district” of the same Istanbul neighborhood and then left his hotel on February 27.
The other suspect, however, Saidakram Rajabalizoda, arrived in Istanbul on January 5, staying in another hotel in Fatih, which he left on January 21. “Then he left for Moscow on March 2 on the same flight as Fariduni,” the source said Afp. “We believe that these two individuals were radicalized in Russia, given their short stay in Turkey.”
Just today the Turkish authorities have announced the arrest of 147 people suspected of having joined the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS).
