Two of the four suspects charged with carrying out the concert hall attack in Moscow that killed more than 130 people have pleaded guilty after appearing in a Russian court bearing the hallmarks of torture.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court formally charged Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30, Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19, and Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, with committing a terrorist attack. The offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The court ordered that the men, all of whom are citizens of Tajikistan, be held in pre-trial custody until May 22.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to answer a question about the visible signs of torture on the suspects’ bodies.
It comes as French President Emmanuel Macron said that Isis-Khorasan, the group that claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack, has also attempted multiple attacks in France.
“This group also tried to commit several actions on our own soil,” Mr Macron told reporters during a visit to French Guyana.
The French government on Sunday raised its terror alert warning to its highest level following the shootings in Moscow.
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Suspected gunman appear in Moscow court bearing marks of torture
The four suspected gunmen in the terrorist attack in Moscow on Friday that killed 137 people and injured more than 150 others have appeared in a Moscow court bearing the marks of torture.
One of the suspects, identified as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, was pictured with a cloth over his right ear after footage showed masked men cutting off his ear.
Mukhammadsobir Faizov, a second suspect, was brought into the court half-conscious and in a wheelchair.
The other two suspects were seen with heavily swollen faces and black eyes.
The Russian authorties have claimed that the four men sustained their injuries during their detainment.
Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall shooting on Friday, sits in a glass cage in Moscow with a heavily bandaged right ear
(AP)
Mukhammadsobir Faizov, a suspect in Friday’s shooting at the Crocus City Hall shooting, is brought into the Basmanny District Court in a wheelchair
(AP)
