Four suspects accused of being present and carrying out last year's terror attack on the Crocus City Hall entertainment center near Moscow have plead guilty on the first day of their trial along with 15 other alleged accomplices.
Three of the accused perpetrators -- Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Faizov -- plead guilty to charges of carrying out the terror attack as their trial began on August 4 in front of a three-judge panel at the Second Western District Military Court.
A fourth suspect -- Saidakram Rachabalizoda -- pleaded partly guilty. All four are Tajik nationals.
Fifteen other suspects face charges of assisting, training, organizing, and participating in the March 2024 attack that left more than 140 people dead and more than 550 injured in the worst such assault in Russia in years.
The Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K), known to recruit mainly among Central Asians, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The trial began open to the public but the judges quickly granted a request by the prosecution to hold the proceedings behind closed doors when evidence is being discussed.
Rights activists say they fear the trial will not be fair given the four suspects captured a day after the attack bore signs -- one appeared to have had an ear cut off -- of having been beaten by police.
"In normal democratic countries, this would never happen - confessions were beaten out of people accused of a terrorist attack and they (the authorities) don't even hide it," human rights activist Karimjon Yorov told RFE/RL's Russian service.
Mukhammadsobir Faizov, one of the four suspects accused of participating in the March 22 terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall, attends a remand hearing after being brought to the court from the intensive care unit.
Others questioned whether the accomplices rounded up had actually committed criminal offenses, saying that police were employing a guilt-by-association mentality.
Police have charged some with renting apartments to those allegedly involved
"In my opinion, they simply recruited scapegoats," said Gennady Gudkov, a former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, who also was once a deputy in the State Duma and one of the few Russian politicians critical of the Kremlin.
"It is difficult to understand the degree of their guilt. I have the impression that this trial is an excuse for not conducting a real investigation."
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Migrants Beaten In Moscow Cafe Amid Ongoing Crackdown On Central Asians
The ethnicity of the attackers -- who appeared to have been beaten when they first appeared in court in March 2024 -- has sparked a surge in ethnic profiling and arbitrary arrests of Central Asians in Russia as well as increased instances of xenophobia and cruelty by far-right nationalist groups.
Russian authorities amended legislation in the summer of 2024 to give the police more powers to expel migrants without court orders.
Meanwhile, a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report highlighted video evidence of coordinated physical assaults by young Slavic-looking men on Central Asian men working in construction, maintenance, and service sectors.
"While failing to condemn these xenophobic actions, Russian authorities have also intensified their targeting of Central Asian migrants," HRW said in the March 2025 report.
Russia depends heavily on migrant labor, with close to 3.3 million workers from Central Asia working in Russia in 2024.
SEE ALSO: Russia's Migrant Crackdown Expands With Mandatory Mobile TrackingDespite their importance to the economy, Russian officials continue to ratchet up pressure on those entering the country from Central Asia.
Officials say they are preparing to launch a sweeping new system in September that will combine biometric registration, location tracking, and intensified police oversight to monitor migrant workers.
The program marks the latest phase in the Kremlin's tightening grip on migration under the banner of national security and social order.
The Crocus City Hall attack was the worst terrorist incident in Russian since the 2004 Beslan school siege in which 333 people, many of them children, were killed.