RUSSIAN authorities arrested another suspect yesterday over March 22’s attack on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow that killed 144 people.

The suspect is reportedly being detained as an accomplice in the raid on the music venue in the Krasnogorsk suburb of the capital, which took place before the Russian band Picnic was scheduled to play a sold-out show. 

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 Mr Kurbonov would be kept in custody until May 22 pending investigation and trial.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti said Mr Kurbonov was reportedly detained on April 11 for 15 days on the administrative charge of petty hooliganism. 

Media outlet Mediazona noted that this is a common practice 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.

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 identified in the media as citizens of Tajikistan, be held in custody until May 22.

A faction of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, but Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have persistently claimed that Ukraine and the West had a role in the attack.

Ukraine denies any involvement and its officials claim that Moscow is pushing the allegation as a pretext to intensify its war against the country.