The sole surviving attacker of the Beslan school siege of September 2004 was found guilty today of murder, hostage taking and terrorism but was spared the death penalty because of Russia’s current moratorium on executions.
The court in Vladikavkaz, capital of the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia, found Nurpashi Kulayev guilty of taking hostages, causing the deaths of 330 people and inflicting material damage of around $1,3-million.
Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov said Kulayev, a Chechen carpenter, deserved the death penalty, but instead sentenced him to life in prison. Russia imposed a moratorium on executions in 1996 and none have been carried out since.
The judge, whose verdict came at the end of a lengthy ruling he began reading eight days ago, said Kulayev had detonated a bomb that had dealt bodily harm to hostages and government troops.
Sixteen hostages executed by the militants on the first day of the assault had died in part due to Kulayev’s actions, he added.
A group of 32 pro-Chechen gunmen raided the school in Beslan on September 1, 2004, holding more than 1 000 children and adults hostage for three terrifying days.
A total of 331 people were killed, most dying in a bloody gun battle when Russian special forces stormed the school gymnasium where the hostages were being kept, which the militants had littered with mines and bombs.
Kulayev, who was almost lynched by locals after being found hiding under a lorry near the school after the siege ended, was also found guilty of shooting children and other hostages who tried to escape during the bloody shoot-out.
”Kulayev deserves the death penalty, but is sentenced to life in prison because a moratorium is in place,” Judge Aguzarov said. Kulayev ”acted calmly and adequately” during the trial and therefore ”can bear responsibility,” he added.
Kulayev, who admitted participating in the attack but denied killing anyone, nodded his head when asked whether he understood the verdict.
The year-long trial has been a hugely emotional affair for relatives of the Beslan victims, with hundreds of them giving evidence as witnesses.
Many blame Russian forces for the scale of the tragedy, saying troops fired at the school using tanks and flame-throwers, sparking a fire that caused the gymnasium roof to collapse on many of the wounded.
As the judge read the verdict, some victims’ relatives shrieked and threw themselves at the glass and metal cage where Kulayev stood, with police struggling to hold them back.
The tiny courtroom was crowded with mothers clad in black for the eighth day of the verdict reading, some holding banners blaming authorities for what happened.
The official version is that federal forces used grenade launchers and tanks against the militants, but only after all the surviving victims had been evacuated. – Guardian Unlimited Â