8th Suspect in Crocus Terror Case Arrested by Court Decision

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow's Basmanny District Court on Tuesday ruled to arrest the eighth defendant in the Crocus City Hall concert venue terrorist attack case, Alisher Kasimov, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the courtroom.

Earlier the Russian Investigative Committee has requested to arrest the eighth defendant in the Crocus City Hall concert venue terrorist attack case.

The court said it "has received a case file on Kasimov Alisher Khatamovivch".

Kasimov is a Russian citizen who was born in Kyrgyzstan. As an individual entrepreneur, he ran a cafe where he worked. When the judge asked if he understood the charges, Kasimov said that he was only renting out his apartment through an advertisement platform and did not know that his tenants planned a terrorist attack. The courtroom was then closed to the public.

⚡️Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations has completed emergency rescue work in the Crocus City Hall, the ministry said. pic.twitter.com/JvTJRK8wx8

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"To satisfy the petition of the investigation, to choose a preventive measure in the form of detention until May 22," the judge announced the decision.

Meanwhile, Tajik authorities are conducting investigation activities with relatives of the four main suspects believed to be directly involved in the terrorist attack, all of whom are citizens of Tajikistan, with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon taking the efforts under his personal control, a source in Tajik law enforcement agencies told Sputnik.

"He [Rahmon] receives all the information on a daily basis on the progress of the investigation and the investigative work carried out in Dushanbe on the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall," the source said.

The house of one of the attackers, 30 miles from Dushanbe, is now sealed off, a Sputnik correspondent reported. His family members were "taken away yesterday to Dushanbe by people in uniform," a neighbor told Sputnik.

A shooting occurred last Friday evening in the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the city of Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, followed by a massive fire. A Sputnik correspondent who witnessed the attack reported that at least three men in camouflage had broken into the music hall, shooting people point-blank and throwing incendiary bombs.

The head of Russia’s main investigative body earlier clarified that 139 people died in the attack. At least 40 victims died from gunshot wounds and 45 lost their lives in the fire that erupted during the attack. Alexander Bastrykin added that other 182 people were injured.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that while the "the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries", the mastermind behind this act of terrorism remains unknown.