Graphic footage shows suspect in Moscow concert attack ‘being force-fed own ear’

Kremlin refuses to answer questions about videos circulating on social media as Russian MPs call for death penalty for those found guilty of attack that killed more than 130 people

Footage that appears to show the torture of suspects in the Moscow concert hall attack during which more than 130 people were killed is circulating in Russia, although the Kremlin is refusing to answer questions about the videos. A total of 97 people remain in hospital, officials said.

One of the films appears to show security forces cutting off the ear of one of the suspects and trying to feed it to him, while another shows a man apparently being subjected to electric shocks to his groin. A third shows security forces beating a man with their rifle butts and kicking him as he lies in the snow. Isis has claimed the attack, and has released graphic video footage of the attackers firing on the crowd inside the concert hall.

Four men appeared in court over the weekend and were charged in relation to the attack. They appeared to have been beaten, and one of the suspects had heavy bandaging to his right ear. Another had to be brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair.

The four suspects were named by Russian authorities as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, 30, Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov, 19.

The men the court identified during the proceedings as Mr Mirzoyev and Mr Rachabalizoda both had black eyes. Mr Rachabalizoda appeared with the bandage on his right ear. The face of the man identified as Mr Fariduni was badly swollen.

Mr Fariduni said in an interrogation video published on social media that he had arrived from Turkey on 4 March. He was trembling while being questioned by the side of a road, with his hands tied behind his back. He said that he had “shot people” in Crocus City Hall “for money”, having been offered 500,000 roubles (£4,300) by a person he did not identify.

The man named as Mr Fayzov appeared to lose consciousness as he was brought into court in a wheelchair. Photographs circulating online on Sunday appeared to show Mr Fayzov with one of his eyes missing.

One of the videos published on Russian social media, appearing to show one of the suspects (Telegram)

The men were officially identified as citizens of Tajikistan, Russia’s Tass state news agency said. A court statement on the Telegram messaging service said Mr Mirzoyev had “admitted his guilt in full”, while Mr Rachabalizoda had also “admitted guilt”. All four were remanded in pre-trial custody until May.

The men were caught about 14 hours after the attack in the southern Bryansk region, around 400km (250 miles) southwest of Moscow, when they fled a vehicle and tried to reach a nearby forest.

When asked about the videos showing alleged torture of the suspects, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, refused to comment. On Tuesday, Russia's commissioner for human rights has called the use of torture against detainees unacceptable.

"Despite the fact that the detention of criminals can be very critical, and criminal law stipulates that actions taken during arrests which cause harm do not entail liability, it is absolutely unacceptable to use torture on detainees and defendants," the commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, was quoted as saying by the Russian state-run TASS news agency. The Russian constitution outlaws torture, and Russia is also part of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

Russian authorities say at least 139 people were killed in the Moscow attack and close to another 200 were injured. It constitutes the deadliest attack claimed by Isis in Europe – and the worst such attack in Russia for two decades.

On Monday, French president Emmanuel Macron said that the Isis branch behind the attack, known as Khorasan Province (Isis-K), had previously attempted attacks on France, as he agreed with the US assessment that Isis-K was behind the act of terror. Isis-K frequently criticises Russian president Vladimir Putin in its propaganda.

“The information available to us ... as well as to our main partners, indicates indeed that it was an entity of the Islamic State [Isis] which instigated this attack,” Mr Macron said during a visit to French Guiana. “This specific group ... had over the past months attempted attacks on our soil,” he said.

Suspect Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda in court (AP)

French prime minister Gabriel Attal later said these foiled attacks had included a plot involving the city of Strasbourg in eastern France. “The claim of responsibility for the [Moscow] attack by a branch of Islamic State that planned attacks in European countries including France prompted us to increase the Vigipirate [security threat assessment] to its highest level,” Mr Attal said, speaking from a Paris railway station about the decision to raise the terror threat level on Sunday night. “We will deploy exceptional means everywhere on [French] territory,” he added.

On Monday, Italy’s interior ministry said it was also stepping up police activity. “In anticipation of the upcoming Easter holidays, an intensification of surveillance and control activities by the police has been agreed,” a statement said, adding that special attention would be given to “all sensitive targets”.

Russian MPs have called on those found guilty of the attack in Moscow to face capital punishment. Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Mr Putin who served a term as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 and has become increasingly strident since Russia sent its troops into Ukraine two years ago, discussed the detained suspects on his Telegram channel on Monday.

“They have been caught. Kudos to all who were chasing them. Should they be killed? They should. And it will happen,” he wrote.

Emergency services at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on Saturday (EPA)

“But it is more important to kill everyone involved. Everyone. Those who paid, those who sympathised, those who helped. Kill them all.”

Russia’s prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, said that “the perpetrators will be punished” and that “they do not deserve mercy”.

Russia has had a moratorium on capital punishment since the 1990s, but it remains on the statute book. No executions have been carried out since 1996, when the president at the time, Boris Yeltsin, issued a decree establishing the moratorium, which was explicitly confirmed by the Constitutional Court in 1999. Russia’s penal code currently allows for the death penalty for five offences: murder, genocide, and attempted murder of either a judge, police officer or state official.

“Now many people are asking questions about the death penalty. This topic, of course, will be deeply, professionally, meaningfully studied,” Vladimir Vasilyev, parliamentary leader of the United Russia faction in the lower house of parliament, was quoted by Tass media as saying on Saturday.

However, Mr Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin is “not taking part in this discussion at the moment”.

A soldier patrols close to the Eiffel Tower on Monday as France stepped up its terror threat level (AP)

Russian officials have been slow to acknowledge the claim by Isis. On Sunday, Mr Putin instead claimed that the attackers were trying to reach Ukraine, though he did not offer any evidence of this. Mr Putin said some people on “the Ukrainian side” had been prepared to spirit the gunmen across the border.

Ukraine has denied any role in the attack. Its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has accused Mr Putin of seeking to divert blame for the attack by mentioning Ukraine, which is defending itself against an invasion by Russian forces that Mr Putin launched in February 2022.

Mr Peskov said in his news conference on Monday that it was inappropriate to comment on the Isis claim until an investigation had been completed. Later in the day, Mr Putin called the attack an act of terrorism “committed by radical Islamists”. But he again tried to pin some of the blame on Kyiv.

The White House strongly dismissed the suggestion of a link to Ukraine. “There was no linkage to Ukraine. This is just more Kremlin propaganda,” said White House spokesperson John Kirby.

Mr Macron warned Russia against trying to exploit the attack by blaming Ukraine. “I think that it would be both cynical and counterproductive for Russia itself and the security of its citizens to use this context to try and turn it against Ukraine,” he said, adding that France had offered help to find the culprits.

“We have offered to increase cooperation with the Russian [intelligence] services and our partners in the region, so that the culprits can be found as quickly as possible and so that we continue to fight effectively against these groups which are targeting several countries,” Mr Macron said.

Mr Peskov said Russia’s security services had not accepted any help from the West. “No, our security services are working on their own; no assistance is currently on the table,” he said. Eleven people have been detained in connection to the attack so far, according to Russian officials.

Counterterrorism researcher Lucas Webber said that Isis had been “focused on outreach efforts to central Asia since the mid-2010s, finding success in recruitment, fundraising, and violent incitement”. He added that Isis-K had been the terror group’s “most internationally minded branch”, and that it had created Uzbek, Tajik, and Russian-language media wings to build support. He added that Isis-K-linked plots had been foiled in Kyrgyzstan, Germany, Austria, and Sweden since last year.