A Russian court on Thursday handed life sentences to four gunmen from Tajikistan, and 11 others it said were their accomplices, for the 2024 Crocus concert hall attack that left 150 people dead. The March 2024 shooting spree was claimed by Islamic State (IS) and was the deadliest jihadist attack in Russia in more than two decades. Relatives of some of the victims stood in the grand Moscow military court as the verdict was read out.
Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Makhammadsobir Fayzov and Saidakrami Rachabolizoda — all Tajik citizens who went on a shooting spree in the building before setting it on fire — looked down as the judge sentenced them to life. Eleven other men — some Russian citizens — were also jailed for life for acting as accomplices and of having terrorist links. Four more men — including a father and his sons — were handed sentences of between 19 and 22 years over their links with the attackers.
The gunmen entered the concert hall shortly before a show by Soviet-era rock band Picnic. They went on a shooting spree before setting fire to the building, trapping many victims. The attack wounded more than 600 people.
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Six children were among those killed. Uliana Filippochkina, whose twin brother Grigory was killed in the attack, flew from Siberia’s Novosibirsk for the verdict. She said she was “satisfied” with the ruling and that she had looked the men who killed her twin in the eyes during their final statements in the trial. “They didn’t explain anything, they tried to escape responsibility, appealing to the fact that they had wives and children… That they were under the influence of drugs,” she said.
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