A Russian court on Thursday sentenced four gunmen from Tajikistan and 11 other people it said were their accomplices to life in prison in connection with the 2024 Crocus concert hall attack that killed 150 people.
The March 2024 shooting was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group and was the deadliest jihadist attack in Russia in more than two decades.
Relatives of some of the victims stood in the Grand Moscow Military Court as the verdict was read.
Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdjan Mirzoyev, Makhammadsobir Faizov and Saidakrami Rachabolizoda – Tajik civilians who went on a shooting spree before setting fire to the building – looked down as the judge sentenced them to life in prison.
Eleven other men – some Russian citizens – were also sentenced to life in prison for acting as accomplices and having terrorist ties.
Four other men, including a father and his sons, were given sentences of between 19 and 22 years for their links to the attackers.
The gunmen entered the concert hall shortly before a performance by the Soviet-era rock band Picnic. They opened fire before setting fire to the building, trapping many victims. More than 600 people were injured in the attack. Six children were among the dead.
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Ulyana Filipochkina, whose twin brother Grigory was killed in the attack, flew in from Novosibirsk, Siberia, for the verdict.
She said she was “satisfied” with the verdict and looked the men who killed her twins in the eye during their closing statements at the trial.
“He did not explain anything, he tried to evade responsibility, pleaded that he had wives and children… he was under the influence of drugs,” he said.
‘No Remorse’
“There is no sympathy or remorse,” he said.
Her brother went to a concert shortly before his 35th birthday. The family was able to identify what was left of his body weeks later, and his remains were buried in Novosibirsk.
The verdict comes just before the second anniversary of the killing.
“For us everything is like yesterday,” Ivan Pomorin, who was filming the Crocus Hall concert at the time, told AFP.
Lawyers said some victims are still receiving treatment for their injuries, while others have severe PTSD and are unable to sleep, use public transport or be in crowded places.
Read moreRussia observes national mourning after Moscow concert hall massacre
The four gunmen – aged between 20 and 31 at the time – worked in various professions, including a taxi driver, a factory worker and a construction worker.
He stood in a glass defendant’s cage, surrounded by security guards.
According to media reports, Mirzoyev’s brother was killed fighting in Syria, possibly contributing to his radicalization.
Hours after the attack, Russian police brought them to court with signs of torture – including one barely conscious in a wheelchair.
‘Absolve guilt with blood’
The attack comes two years into Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Russia – caught up in the offensive – dismissing earlier US warnings of an imminent attack.
The Kremlin suggested a Ukrainian connection during the attack, but never provided evidence.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said after the verdict that it had “reliably established” that the attack was “planned and committed to Kyiv’s interests”.
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It accused them of plotting an attack in Dagestan.
The TASS state news agency reported this month, citing lawyers, that two of them – Dzhabrail Ushyev and Khusein Medov – had asked to be sent to fight in Ukraine instead of life sentences.
Throughout its invasion, Russia recruited prisoners for its military operations, offering to buy off their sentences if they survived.
According to a lawyer cited by TASS, Medov said he wanted to “redeem his guilt with blood.”
The anti-immigration turn
Russia – which had already taken a conservative social turn during the war – has stepped up anti-immigration laws and rhetoric since the attacks.
This has led to tensions with Moscow’s allies in Central Asia, some of whom have confronted Russia and called for it to respect the rights of their citizens.
Russia’s economy has depended heavily on millions of Central Asian migrants for years.
But their flow to Russia slowed after Moscow launched its Ukraine campaign, and some Central Asians stopped going to Russia after the post-Crocus crackdown on migrants.
(With FRANCE 24 AFP)
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