Beslan school hostage-taker sentenced to life

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Moscow, May 26 (UNI) The North Ossetian Supreme Court today sentenced Nurpashi Kulayev, the sole surviving hostage-taker to life imprisonment.

Kulayev was one of 32 gunmen who took hostage of more than 1,000 children at School N 1 in Beslan on September 1, 2004. During the siege of the school, 331 people, including 186 children were killed.

Except Kulayev, all the terrorists were killed in the siege.

The prosecution had demanded death punishment for Kulayev, but the lawyer for the hostages, Teimuraz Chejemov, insisted on a life sentence.

''The court ruled that he (Kulayev) as a socially dangerous individual deserved capital punishment,'' he said.

''However, based on a decision of the Constitution Court from February 2, 1999 (that imposed a moratorium on the death penalty), this punishment could not be imposed,'' the lawyer added.

Commenting on the sentence, the Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said that the sentence handed down to Kulayev, corresponded to the gravity of his crimes.

''A criminal who raises a hand on children does not deserve sympathy, no matter the motives behind his acts,'' Kadyrov told Interfax news agency.

''The sentence is in accordance with Russian legislation, and I am sure that everybody who intends to commit a terrorist attack will be sentenced similarly,'' he stressed.

However, the relatives of the victims of the Beslan terrorist attack said it was unlikely that the Prosecutor's Office will achieve other convictions besides Kulayev in the case.

''I am sure that nobody, except Kulayev, will be punished,'' Elvira Kulayeva, a victim of the Beslan attack, told the agency.

''Moreover, I am not sure that Kulayev will spend his entire life in prison,'' she said.

''We hoped that the truth would come out. But it was not reflected in the verdict,'' said Valery Karlov, the son of a school employee who died in the attack.

Kulayev admitted participating in the siege, but said he did not kill anyone and dismissed the charges against him as a "fairy tale." UNI XC SB GC1958

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