Russian President Vladimir Putin claims, with out offering proof, that Ukraine was concerned within the assault, an allegation Kyiv vehemently denies.
The trial has begun for 19 defendants accused of involvement within the 2024 taking pictures assault in a Moscow live performance corridor that killed 149 folks, and wounded over 600, in one of many deadliest assaults within the capital because the period of the Russian-Chechen wars within the Nineties and 2000s.
The suspects showing in courtroom on Monday, beneath heavy safety, stored their heads bowed as they sat within the defendants’ cage.
An ISIL (ISIS) affiliate claimed duty for the March 22, 2024 bloodbath on the Crocus Metropolis Corridor live performance venue by which 4 gunmen shot individuals who have been ready for a present by a rock band after which set the constructing on hearth. ISIL’s Afghan department – also referred to as ISKP (ISIS-Ok) – claimed duty for the assault.
President Vladimir Putin and different Russian officers have claimed, with out offering any proof, that Ukraine was concerned within the assault, an allegation Kyiv has vehemently denied.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s prime felony investigation company, concluded in June that the assault had been “deliberate and carried out within the pursuits of the present management of Ukraine so as to destabilise the political scenario in our nation”. It additionally stated the 4 suspected gunmen tried to flee to Ukraine afterward.
The 4, all recognized as residents of Tajikistan, have been arrested hours after the assault and later appeared in a Moscow courtroom with indicators of getting been crushed.
The committee stated earlier this yr that six different suspects have been charged in absentia and positioned on Russia’s wished listing for allegedly recruiting and organising the coaching of the 4. Different defendants within the trial have been accused of serving to them.
In 2002, some 40 rebels from Chechnya stormed the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow and took round 800 folks hostage whereas demanding an finish to Putin’s battle within the separatist southern republic.
Putin refused to barter with the fighters, and the standoff ended with mass dying days later when Russian particular providers pumped a strong gasoline into the constructing to stun the hostage-takers earlier than storming it. A lot of the 129 hostages who died have been killed by the gasoline.