After Tuesday visit to a military hospital in Krasnogorsk near Moscow, where some of those injured in the August 1 blast receive medical treatment, Russia’s Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov told the press that investigators “have established identities of the terrorists, as well as of all persons, in this way or another involved in purchasing the instrument of the crime – the KamAZ motor-vehicle”.
“Investigation is under control of the Prosecutor General and in the nearest months we will be able to name persons guilty of the act,” the prosecutor said.
Russian law enforcers have already detained seven suspects within the Mozdok bombing case. Earlier this week several suspects were arrested in North Ossetia. Two persons who are believed to have sold the KamAZ to terrorists were detained as early as August 3, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky has told the press.
Besides, it is known, that among those arrested in the case is a police officer from Ingushetia Adam Tsoroyev, who, investigators allege, a week before the attack bought the KamAZ truck in Nazran and several days later resold it to a Chechen named Khasan Dadayev.
Prosecutors refused to divulge the names of detainees citing the interests of investigation. The probe is being carried out by a special team of 33 investigators.
In the meantime, disputes continue as to who is to blame for the making the military hospital a target for terrorists and for failure to prevent the attack. Both the military prosecutor and the Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov are convinced that the head of the hospital Lieutenant-Colonel Artur Arakelyan must bear personal responsibility for the attack.
“Lieutenant-Colonel Arakelyan has been arrested. His carelessness contributed to the perpetration of the terror attack,” Savenkov emphasized on Tuesday. “Presently it is possible to say that those officers [Arakelyan and the commander of the Mozdok military garrison Colonel Sergei Khmelevsky.-Gazeta.Ru] failed to observe the order on taking urgent measures for installing barriers and other means of stopping transport,” Sergei Ivanov said echoing the prosecutor.
On their part, Arakelyan’s colleagues are convinced that the law enforcers are making their boss a scapegoat. Some military officials said in the wake of the blast that a hospital might be considered a military installation but with a great reserve. “The head of the hospital is the commander of the military unit responsible for all issues regarding the activities of the hospital including security,” Sergei Ivanov retorted on Tuesday.
The military court in Pyatigorsk on Tuesday refuted reports of certain media that Lieutenant-Colonel Arakelyan may be released from custody under a travel ban pending investigation of his case. “Reports of certain media that on Tuesday the court is to review the request of the lawyer on releasing the accused from custody under the pledge not to leave the area do not conform to realiy,” an acting chairman of the court Alexander Moskalenko told RIA-Novosti.
Prosecutors promise that in the near future the names of all terrorists involved in the August 1 attack on Mozdok will be known. Yet, it is still unclear whether investigators have information on the mastermind of the blast. So far law enforcers have only suggested that the notorious Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev could be involved in that crime. However, Shamil Basayev had not claimed responsibility for the blast. Talking to the press on Tuesday Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov did not say anything new either. “It is clear to everyone who are we dealing with in the Northern Caucasus. They are not humans, but rather humanoid biological beings,” he said, but stopped short of divulging any specific names.
Also Sergei Ivanov said he had filed documents to have Private Valery Laba posthumously decorated with the Order of Courage. Ivanov reminded journalists that Laba had died trying to stop the suicide bomber, who drove into the yard of the Mozdok hospital in a Kamaz truck loaded with explosives.
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