As the Russia concert hall attack death toll is nearing 140, many are questioning the country’s intelligence failure. While speaking to the media, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said not a single country can be completely “immune to the threat of terrorism”.
However, Peskov did not elaborate on the question. “There is currently a lot of emotional, hysterical, provocative content online. Clearly, this monstrous tragedy evokes a lot of emotions, but unfortunately, our world shows that not a single city or country can be completely immune to the threat of terrorism," said Peskov.
"The intelligence services work tirelessly. They are dealing with all the threats, all the challenges that our country faces," he added.
Meanwhile, all four suspects in the Crocus concert hall attack case have been remanded into pre-trial detention until May 22. All four suspects were brought to the court individually. Reportedly, three of them pleaded guilty. They were charged with committing a terrorist act.
The suspects were accused of committing a crime under part 3, provision “b” of article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (terrorist act), which the Russian Criminal Code states is punishable with up to life imprisonment.
(Clockwise from top L) Saidakrami Murodalii Rachabalizoda, Dalerdjon (alternatively spelled Dalerdzhon) Barotovich Mirzoyev, Muhammadsobir Fayzov and Shamsidin Fariduni suspected of taking part in the attack of a concert hall, sitting inside the defendant cage for the pre-trial detention hearing at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow | AFP
The accused were identified as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Muhammadsober Faizov. All of them were from Tajikistan and had been in Russia on either temporary or expired visas.
Mirzoyev (32) had a temporary registration for three months in the southern Russian city of Novosibirsk in Siberia, according to RIA Novosti, a local news outlet.
Rachabalizoda, born in 1994, told the court that he had Russian registration documents, but was not able to remember where the documents were.
The third defendant Fariduni was born in 1998 and is a citizen of the Central Asian country. Fariduni was officially employed at a factory in the Russian city of Podolsk. While Faizov, reportedly born in 2004, Faizov was temporarily unemployed, before which he worked in a barber shop in Ivanovo, a city northeast of Moscow.
The Basmanny District Court of Moscow granted the investigators' motion for detention, as a preventive measure, for all four defendants.
Under the Russian Criminal Code, committing a terrorist act is punishable by up to life imprisonment.
Reportedly, Friday's attack killed at least 137 people so far. The authorities continue to work to identify the victims. The Russian Investigate Committee said around 62 bodies had been identified so far.
