Trial begins for suspects in Moscow concert hall attack that killed 149

A group of defendants accused of involvement in the 2024 Crocus City Hall music venue gun attack that killed 149 people go on trial in Moscow on August 4, 2025. ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP

Nineteen people went on trial in Moscow on Monday, August 4, over an attack on a city concert hall that killed 149 people in one of the deadliest strikes in Russia. Armed men stormed the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow on March 22, 2024, opening fire and then setting the building alight, injuring hundreds of people. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility.

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The four suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan – an ex-Soviet republic in central Asia – and another 15 people accused of being accomplices have gone on trial. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter at the courtroom saw some of the defendants in glass cages, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Around 30 survivors were also present.