MOSCOW: Russia declared a day of national mourning and lowered flags to half-mast on Sunday (March 24) after the bloody attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall that killed 137 people including three children and injured 182 people.
Four gunmen stormed and opened fire on visitors watching a concert by Soviet-era rock band Picnic at the building west of Moscow.
This attack was the deadliest terror attack in the country of the “Red Bear” in the last two decades since the Beslan school siege in 2004 which killed 334 people.
The perpetrators fired their automatic weapons indiscriminately at the visitors who fell screaming
A somber-looking Russian President Vladimir Putin lit candles in the church at his residence outside Moscow on Sunday evening to honor the dead.
The Islamic State or also known as ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack through a release on its Telegram channel.
Putin, who has not said who he thinks is responsible, has not publicly named the Islamist militant group.
He said the perpetrators were trying to flee to Ukraine and that some parties “on the Ukrainian side” were preparing to help them cross the border.
The Russian Intelligence Service (FSB) revealed that the perpetrator had contacts in Ukraine and was arrested near the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine denies involvement in the terror attack.
Four suspects were charged with terrorism related to the attack. They are Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov.
The court said Mirzoyev, a citizen of Tajikistan, pleaded guilty to all charges. The four suspects were temporarily detained until May 22.
In video footage published by Russian media and a Kremlin-affiliated Telegram channel, one of the suspects said he was offered money to carry out the attack.
“I shot at people,” said the suspect, his hands tied and his hair held by his pen and a black shoe under his chin, in broken Russian.
When asked why he accepted the offer, he said: “Because of the money.”
The man said he was promised half a million rubles (around Rp. 85 million). One of them answered questions through a Tajik translator.
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said Russia would punish the perpetrators whoever they were and wherever they came from.
The former Russian President also said “death must be met with death”. Some lawmakers have begun discussing whether the death penalty should be reintroduced for terrorism crimes
