Nineteen people have gone on trial under strict security in Moscow, accused of taking part in last year’s concert hall massacre in the city that killed 149 people and wounded more than 600.
Four gunmen burst into the Crocus City Hall on 22 March and fatally shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band before setting the building on fire.
A faction of the Islamic State group said it was behind the attack but Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and other state officials have claimed, without providing evidence, that Ukraine had a role in the shooting spree, which Kyiv has strongly denied.
Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said in June that it believed the attack had been “planned and carried out in the interests of the current leadership of Ukraine in order to destabilise political situation in our country”.
The Investigative Committee also noted that the four suspected gunmen tried to escape to Ukraine afterwards.
The quartet, all identified as citizens of Tajikistan, were arrested hours after the attack and later appeared in a Moscow court, showing signs of having been severely beaten.
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Appearing in court on Monday, the accused kept their heads down as they sat in the defendants’ cage.
Earlier this year, the committee said six other suspects were charged in absentia and placed on Russia’s wanted list for allegedly recruiting and organising the training of the four.
Other defendants in the trial were accused of helping them.
