A Moscow court ordered the arrest of a Tajik man in connection with the March 22 terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall, bringing the total number of people detained in the investigation to 11.
RBC, citing the press center of the Moscow courts of general jurisdiction, reported on April 5 that Moscow’s Basmanny district court has ordered Muhammad Zoir Sharipzoda to remain in pretrial detention until May 22, accusing him of an unspecified terrorist act.
The court reportedly released no further information in its April 5 press statement.
Photographs and video released by the court showed Sharipzoda seated in a courtroom glass cage as the detention ordered was issued.
Sharipzoda is the 11th person either arrested or detained on suspicion of involvement in the March 22 attack in which more than 144 were killed.
Four Tajik nationals have been accused of entering the venue just before a concert was due to begin, shooting people indiscriminately, then setting fire to the facility.
Of the eleven men in custody, 10 are Tajiks; one is reported to be a Kyrgyz-born Uzbek man who has Russian citizenship. Aside from the alleged attackers, those detained have been accused of providing the getaway car, or an apartment, or transferring money.
Meanwhile, RBC says the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) stated on April 4 that three other people have been detained in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Omsk on suspicion of being in involved in the Crocus City Hall attack. FSB has reportedly clarified that two foreigners and a Russian citizen were detained – “all of them are natives of the Central Asian region.”
