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MOSCOW: Four men accused of involvement in the Moscow concert hall attack that killed at least 137 people were charged with terrorism on Sunday (Mar 24) and ordered to be detained pending trial.
All four risk a life sentence in prison, a statement from Moscow's Basmanny district court said.
The men were ordered to be held until May 22, but that could be extended depending on when the date for their trial is fixed.
The court said two of the defendants had pleaded guilty, one of them, from Tajikistan, "entirely acknowledged his guilt", said the statement.
Officials have already said the gunmen were all foreign nationals.
A man suspected of taking part in the attack of a concert hall that killed more than 130 people is escorted by Russian law enforcement officers prior to his pre-trial detention hearing at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow on Mar 24, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Tatyana Makeyeva)
Dalerdjon Barotovich Mirzoyev, suspected of taking part in the attack of a concert hall that killed more than 130 people, sits in the defendant cage as he waits for his pre-trial detention hearing at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow on Mar 24, 2024.(Photo: AFP/Olga Maltseva)
Russian officials say they have arrested 11 people in connection with Friday night's attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow's northern suburb of Krasnogorsk, including four of those who carried out the killings.
The court released footage showing three suspects being brought to a courtroom handcuffed and bent double by police officers. They were seated in a glass-fronted cell reserved for defendants.
A fourth man arrived in a wheelchair, his eyes closed.
One of the defendants had one of his ears bandaged, as in earlier videos of their arrest Saturday, when three of them had bloodied faces.
Muhammadsobir Fayzov, a suspect in the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, sits in a medical transport chair behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing at the Basmanny district court in Moscow, Russia March 25, 2024. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
A man suspected of taking part in the attack of a concert hall that killed more than 130 people, the deadliest attack in Europe to have been claimed by the Islamic State militant group, sits inside the defendant cage as he waits for his pre-trial detention hearing at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow on Mar 24, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Olga Maltseva)
Although the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to suggest Kyiv's involvement when he said Saturday that they had been arrested while trying to flee to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the United States have dismissed any suggestion Kyiv was involved.
The attack was the deadliest carried out in Russia since the beginning of the 2000s.
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