Confusion and many questions surrounded the investigation into the Crocus City Hall attack on Monday. Perpetrated, according to the authorities, by at least four men from Central Asia whom Vladimir Putin described as “radical Islamists”, this attack in a performance hall on the outskirts of Moscow, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) , left 137 dead, including three children, and 182 injured, of whom 97 were still hospitalized. A non-final assessment, the complete clearance of the auditorium, set on fire by the attackers, must continue until Tuesday. Around a thousand people, including members of the rescue teams and dog handlers, were still at work on Monday.
Two Kalashnikov assault rifles and five hundred rounds of ammunition were found at the scene. In total, eleven people were arrested, according to authorities. On Monday, the court in charge of the case announced to AFP the placement in pre-trial detention of three suspects (a father and two of his sons according to the Ria Novosti press agency), without specifying whether they were part of of the eleven suspects already mentioned. According to BBC-Russia, two other people were killed, one at the site of the attack, the other when the commando fleeing in a white Renault was arrested in the region. from Bryansk, 370 km southwest of Moscow, close to the borders of Belarus and Ukraine. An element used by Vladimir Putin on Saturday to point the finger at the responsibility of the Kiev regime, which would have “opened a window” to terrorists – all of whom were apprehended, said the head of the Kremlin.
On Sunday evening, the four alleged perpetrators of the attack were brought before a judge in Moscow and charged with an act of terrorism: Dalerjon Mirzoyev, 32, originally from Tajikistan, father of four young children; Saidakrom Rachabalizoda, 28, also born in Tajikistan and living in Moscow; Chamsiddin Faridouni, 24, also of Tajik nationality, father of an eight-month-old baby, and Muhammadsobir Faizov – a 19-year-old hairdresser, also a Tajik citizen. The latter was presented at the hearing in a wheelchair in a semi-conscious state, probably following the blows received during his arrest.
To see their faces and their dazed expressions, they all suffered abuse – as also evidenced by videos and difficult to watch photos which are allegedly extracts from their “interrogation”, and which were looped on social networks all weekend – end. Faridouni was shown lying down, pantsless with electrical wires from a military field telephone connected to his genitals. Sunday evening, in the defendants’ cage, as if knocked out, his face was swollen, most probably because of the blows. Rachabalizoda entered the courtroom with a bandage on his head. A video, broadcast earlier on the Telegram channel Gray Zone, well connected to the security services, showed how, after his arrest, part of his ear was allegedly cut off with a knife, which was then inserted into his mouth .
Placed in pre-trial detention until May 22, all risk a life sentence. This first hearing took place behind closed doors, officially to prevent the “disclosure of state secrets”. Margarita Simonian, the head of the television channel Russia Today, whose proximity to the Kremlin is total, nevertheless published a video on Saturday presented as showing an interrogation of Chamsiddin Faridouni. He does not mention any ideological or religious motive but declares that he acted for money, 500,000 rubles (5,000) euros, half of which he had already received by transfer. “I shot people for money,” the man says in this video, claiming to have been in contact, via Telegram, with an “assistant preacher” who allegedly recruited him. Other people, whose names he claims not to know, allegedly provided him with weapons.
Dalerjon Mirzoyev, part of whose interrogation was also broadcast, said for his part that he had been in contact with a certain Abdullo, also thanks to Telegram, and who could be this same “assistant preacher”. The latter would have suggested to the small team to “work together”. It was he who allegedly paid for the commando’s white Renault. According to the Telegram channel Important Stories, this man, Abdullo Bouriyev, of Tajik and Russian nationality, could be the organizer of the Crocus attack. From the same source, Bouriyev was already in the crosshairs of the Turkish security services for his membership in EI-K, the Afghan branch of Daesh. The same one that American intelligence claims was involved in the attack on Crocus City Hall.
This terrorist group is also accused of having stormed the Sainte-Marie Catholic Church in Istanbul at the beginning of this year. According to Turkish services, Abdullo Bouriyev, as a member of the Tajik EI-K cell, co-organized the attack on the church, before fleeing to Russia. Certainly, temper Important Stories, there are more than twenty people in Russia answering the name of Abdullo or Abdullah Bouriyev. The fact remains that the lead, if confirmed, would undermine the official Russian thesis a priori excluding the responsibility of IS and incriminating Ukraine.
A thesis hammered out by federal television, and which many Russians, in shock, are ready to believe… Despite the questions that remain. How can we explain such flaws in security services? How were the attackers able to enter the auditorium so easily and carry out a massacre in 18 minutes, setting it on fire, before leaving? Why were the emergency exits locked with padlocks? Why did the police take more than an hour to intervene when the Rosgvardia barracks were only four kilometers – or nine minutes – away? So many obsessive questions which remained unanswered on Monday.
