Russia Arrests Another Suspect in Deadly Concert Hall Attack

FILED - 25 March 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a video conference with the heads of the government, regions, special services and law enforcement agencies on measures taken after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert complex. Photo: -/Kremlin/dpa
FILED - 25 March 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a video conference with the heads of the government, regions, special services and law enforcement agencies on measures taken after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert complex. Photo: -/Kremlin/dpa
TT
20

Russia Arrests Another Suspect in Deadly Concert Hall Attack

FILED - 25 March 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a video conference with the heads of the government, regions, special services and law enforcement agencies on measures taken after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert complex. Photo: -/Kremlin/dpa
FILED - 25 March 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a video conference with the heads of the government, regions, special services and law enforcement agencies on measures taken after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert complex. Photo: -/Kremlin/dpa

A Moscow court has detained another suspect as an accomplice in the attack by gunmen on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people in March, the Moscow City Courts Telegram channel said Saturday.

Dzhumokhon Kurbonov, a citizen of Tajikistan, is accused of providing the attackers with means of communication and financing. The judge at Moscow's Basmanny District Court ruled that Kurbonov would be kept in custody until May 22 pending investigation and trial, The Associated Press reported.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said Kurbonov was reportedly detained on April 11 for 15 days on the administrative charge of petty hooliganism. Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona noted that this is a common practice used by Russian security forces to hold a person in custody while a criminal case is prepared against them.
Twelve defendants have been arrested in the case, including four who allegedly carried out the attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, according to RIA Novosti.
Those four appeared in the same Moscow court at the end of March on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing. The court ordered that the men, all of whom were identified in the media as citizens of Tajikistan, also be held in custody until May 22.
A faction of ISIS has claimed responsibility for the massacre in which gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire. But Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have persistently claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine and the West had a role in the attack.
Ukraine denies involvement and its officials claim that Moscow is pushing the allegation as a pretext to intensify its fighting in Ukraine.



Pope Had a Peaceful Night After Pneumonia Diagnosis, Vatican Says

People walk outside the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is admitted to continue treatment for a respiratory tract infection, in Rome, Italy, February 18, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk outside the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is admitted to continue treatment for a respiratory tract infection, in Rome, Italy, February 18, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Pope Had a Peaceful Night After Pneumonia Diagnosis, Vatican Says

People walk outside the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is admitted to continue treatment for a respiratory tract infection, in Rome, Italy, February 18, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk outside the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is admitted to continue treatment for a respiratory tract infection, in Rome, Italy, February 18, 2025. (Reuters)

Pope Francis spent a peaceful fifth night in hospital and ate breakfast on Wednesday, the Vatican said in its latest update on the pontiff's fragile health.

Francis has the onset of double pneumonia, the Vatican said on Tuesday, complicating treatment for the 88-year-old pope who was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14.

Double pneumonia is a serious infection that can inflame and scar both lungs and makes breathing more difficult.

The Vatican had said previously that the pope had a polymicrobial infection, which occurs when two or more micro-organisms are involved, adding that he would stay in hospital as long as necessary to tackle a "complex clinical situation".

The pope has been plagued by ill health in recent years, including regular bouts of flu, sciatica nerve pain and an abdominal hernia that required surgery in 2023. As a young adult he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed.

All the pope's public engagements have been cancelled through Sunday and he has no further official events on the Vatican's published calendar.