Initially, the terrorists who attacked Crocus City Hall had considered one of the towers of the Moscow City business center as a target, one of the participants in the court proceedings told TASS.
“They [the perpetrators] were instructed to carry out a terrorist attack. At first they were sent the address of a building in Moscow City for assessment, but they deemed it unsuitable,” the agency’s source said.
After that, the terrorists’ handler, who was outside Russia and used the alias Saifullo, designated the concert hall in Krasnogorsk as the target, the participant in the proceedings added. Saifullo has been placed on the wanted list.
The day before, TASS, citing a participant in the court proceedings, reported that the terrorists had planned to carry out two attacks in Moscow, but later abandoned that plan and decided to attack Crocus City Hall with a reinforced group.
The second attack, according to the plan, was supposed to take place simultaneously with the attack on Crocus. It was expected to involve two people, while the attack on Crocus involved three. Where exactly the second attack was planned is unknown. According to the case materials, during it they also intended to “kill many people.”
On Monday, April 6, two people convicted in the Crocus attack case attempted to take their own lives. One of them, Yakubdzhoni Davlatkhon Yusufzoda, who was being held in the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center, died.
The other, Dzhabrail Aushev, attempted suicide in the Krasnaya Presnya transit prison, but he was saved. According to RBC and Kommersant, this was not the convict’s first suicide attempt.
In March, the 2nd Western District Military Court, at an off-site session in Moscow, announced the verdict in the case of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. Four perpetrators, Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Makhammadsobir Fayzov, and Saidakram Rachabolizoda, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Life sentences were also handed down to 11 other people whom the court found to be accomplices of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack: Umedzhon and Mustakim Soliev, Shakhromdzhon Gadoev, Zaibudullo Ismoilov, Khusein Khamidov, Mukhammad Zoir Sharipzode, Yakubdzhoni Yusufzode, Nazrimad Lutfulloi, Dzhumakhon Kurbonov, Khusen Medov, and Dzhabrail Aushev.
They were charged with transferring weapons and ammunition to the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, converting deactivated weapons into live firearms, providing money, and also preparing a similar terrorist attack in Kaspiysk, Dagestan.
In addition, the court found four more people guilty. Alisher Kasimov, who rented an apartment to the perpetrators of the attack on the concert hall, received 22.5 years. Dilovar Islomov, who sold the terrorists his Renault Symbol car, as well as his father Isroil and brother Aminchon, each received 19 years and 11 months.