All relatives of Faridoun Shamsiddin, one of suspects in the Crocus City Hall mass shooting, including his father, mother, his wife with an eight-month-old son, mother-in-law, uncle and cousins have reportedly been taken away.  

Faridoun Shamsiddin is a resident of Loyobi village in Hisor district, some 25 kilometers of Dushanbe.

When Asia-Plus’s reporter arrived in this village on March 27, there was only there was only his brother’s wife in the house, but she did not want to talk to reporters. 

The reporter managed to talk to his uncle’s wife who lives next door to Shamsiddin’s family. 

The woman told Asia-Plus on the basis of anonymity that “people in formal dress came on March 23 and took all the relatives.”   She said she didn’t know where they were taken.   

“My husband and sons are also gone.  They went to find out about their uncle and never returned. I don’t know where they are now and what’s wrong with them,” the woman told Asia-Plus on Wednesday.  

Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reported on March 25 that Faridoun’s sister, Mahbuba Zagarova and her three children have been deported from Russia.   The justification was allegedly the fact that she registered Faridoun in her home. 

Meanwhile, Radio Ozodi says locals in Loyobi village outside described Faridoun Shamsiddin as a “coward” and said they were shocked by news their fellow villager was among the suspects in the deadly terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk on March 22.

“I never noticed anything suspicious in his actions.  He left for Russia six months ago and has been sending money home to his family,” a relative of Shamsiddin told RFE/RL on March 25.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the man said Shamsiddin, 25, worked at a local bakery before moving to Russia and “could not have killed a sparrow.  He was a coward.”

Married with a son, Shamsiddin was a convicted sex offender and sentenced to seven years in prison for sexual harassment, a relative said.  Shamsiddin was reportedly granted an early release in 2020.

Asked about Faridoun’s religious beliefs, the Loyobi resident said he wasn’t a practicing Muslim: “He never prayed or fasted, and he drank alcohol.”

Recall, speaking Russian with an accent, the man identified himself as Faridoun Shamsiddin and said he was born in September 1998.  He said he had been contacted by the "assistant of an [Islamic] preacher" whose lectures he had been listening to on Telegram.

The assistant reportedly gave no information about himself: “no name, no surname, nor anything else” he claimed.

The face of the interrogator and other men holding the suspect were not shown in the footage, which was widely circulated on Russian websites and social media on March 23 before appearing on state media outlets.

The authenticity of the video cannot be independently verified, Radio Ozodi notes.

Late on March 24, the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which has been tied to the Wagner group, reportedly published a photograph purporting to show men torturing suspect Faridoun Shamsiddin.  The photograph shows a military radio connected by wire to the suspect's genitals, a well-documented form of torture through electric shock used in the Russian military, according to Radio Ozodi.

On March 24, Moscow's Basmanny district court remanded the four men -- Saidakram Rajabalizoda, Dalerjon Mirzoyev, Muhammadsobir Faizov, and Faridoun Shamsiddin -- into custody for at least two months pending trial on terrorism charges.  The court identified the four as Tajik citizens and said they all admitted guilt after being charged.

The court on March 25 remanded three more suspects, including the former owner of the car that the attackers allegedly used to flee.  The suspects are Aminjon, Dilovar, and Isroil Islomov. The court did not explain the relationship between the men, but Aminjon and Dilovar have patronymic names indicating they are sons of Isroil.

Dilovar Islomov is believed to be the last owner of the white Renault used by the attackers. The court ordered the Islomovs to remain in pretrial detention until at least May 22.