MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. More people may be designated as suspects in the ongoing criminal investigation into the deadly terror attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue just outside Moscow, TASS has learned from case files.
A court ruling to place under arrest one of the suspects, Mukhammad Zoir Sharipzoda, says investigators have grounds to believe that the man "may contact other unidentified co-conspirators in the crime" if he is not placed in pretrial custody.
The suspect pleaded guilty to some of the charges and expressed readiness to cooperate with the investigation.
The terror attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the city of Krasnogorsk just a stone’s throw from Moscow’s city limits was staged on the evening of March 22. The attack claimed 144 lives and left 551 more people hurt.
Four perpetrators - Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakram Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Mukhammadsobir Faizov - were detained in Russia’s Bryansk Region bordering Ukraine by the next morning. Later, seven more suspected accomplices - brothers Amichon and Dilovar Islomovs, their father Isroil Islomov, Alisher Kasimov, Lutfullo Nazrimada, Yakubdzhoni Yusufzoda, and Mukhammad Sharipzoda - were also detained. Ashurov, who, according to investigators, helped the Islomov brothers obtain fake documents, was detained in Tver on April 16.
Earlier, the public relations center of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) repoted that three more suspected accomplices were detained in Moscow, Yekaterniburg and Omsk. Four foreigners who provided financial assistance have been detained in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
In all, more than 20 people involved in the attack have been detained so far, according to FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov.