FILE - Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall shootings, is escorted by police and FSB officers in Basmanny District Court in Moscow, Russia, on March 24, 2024. The attack on the Moscow concert hall, the bloodiest assault on Russian soil in two decades, appears to be setting the stage for an increasingly harsh response by President Vladimir Putin. Four suspects in the attack appeared in court showing signs of brutal treatment while in custody.
One had a heavily bandaged ear -– reportedly cut off during interrogation. Another had pieces of a plastic bag on his neck, a possible sign of attempts at suffocation. A third was in a wheelchair, barely conscious, accompanied by medical personnel. The Associated Press was unable to verify the authenticity of the images, but Human Rights Watch said it determined the men in the photos and videos were the same as those in court for their pretrial hearings.
In a commentary on his messaging app channel this week, he called for the extrajudicial killings of Ukrainian officials, arguing Russia should follow in the Soviet practice in the last century of assassinations, like those of Ukrainian nationalists Yevhen Konovalets and Stepan Bandera. Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the parliamentary faction of United Russia, the main Kremlin party, said the lower house would review restoring the death penalty, taking into account “society’s mood and expectations.”