Four men were arrested and placed in pre-trial detention due to the attack on Friday (22) at the Crocus City concert hall, near Moscow, Russia, which left at least 137 people dead.
All were identified by Russian media as citizens of Tajikistan. They all had visible injuries when they appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday (24). The Kremlin refused to comment on Monday (25) when asked if the men had been tortured.
The Friday attack was the deadliest terrorist act in the Russian capital in decades and comes less than a week after Putin secured victory in the election, increasing his control over the country he has governed since the turn of the century.
The terrorist group ISIS claimed responsibility for the act. A U.S. official said on Friday that Washington had no reason to doubt ISIS’s claim.
The incident led U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to call for global cooperation against ISIS on Saturday.
“ISIS is a terrorist organization that operates in various parts of the world and is a very serious threat to all of us… and we encourage all countries to work together to ensure that ISIS does not have the capacity to attack again anywhere else in the world,” Guterres said at a press conference.
However, Putin linked what he called a “barbaric terrorist attack” to Ukraine in a video statement released on Saturday, expressing deep condolences and declaring Sunday a national day of mourning.
The perpetrators, he said, “tried to hide and advance towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border.”
Ukraine denied any connection to the attack and warned that Russia could use it as an excuse to escalate its invasion.
Source: Reuters and CNN