New evidence given on Beslan

Another hearing of Beslan attack participant Nurpashi Kulayev's case has occurred today. As victims give evidence, new details are disclosed, Caucasian Knot's correspondent says.

"When I came to my senses after the first explosion, I saw the collapsed ceiling and the bewildered faces of the rebels," victim Zarina Tokayev is telling the court. "Some one of them cried out, 'Your guys have blown you up.'" Tokayev maintains many rebels spoke "pure Ossetian."

"Only Ossetians can speak so, without any accent. I am a North Ossetia native and no one can cheat me here," she said.

Zarina Tokayev addressed the defendant:

Zarina Tokayev: Did you have assistants in Beslan?

Nurpashi Kulayev: They (gunmen - ed.) talked to someone by phone, but I don't know to whom.

Z.T.: Were there Ossetians with you?

N.K.: There were some who were not Chechen or Ingush, they spoke Russian.

At previous hearings some victims maintained the attackers had not demanded paediatrician Leonid Roshal among those whom they had called for negotiations, but Vladimir Rushailo, the former internal affairs minister of Russia. The terrorists, according to the original version, wanted to talk to North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov, Ingush President Murat Ziazikov, the Russian president's adviser Aslanbek Aslakhanov and paediatrician Leonid Roshal. However, the victims disprove this account.

"They (terrorists - ed.) did not want Roshal, but Rushailo," Marina Taptun says. "I heard that clearly. One rebel was talking by phone saying, 'I haven't called for the doctor, I am not sick, it's you who are sick,' and he threw down the receiver."

Kazbek Misikov was among the hostages together with his wife and two children. The victim claims the suicide bombers were three, not two, and the first blast on 3 September occurred "outside" the school in Beslan, not inside as people from the Prosecutor General's Office say. Moreover, Misikov is sure the terrorists' bombs had not been connected to detonators during those three days.

"They had everything prepared, even the length of the wire from the basket to the basket (for basketball in the school gymnasium where more than 1,000 hostages were kept - ed.) was equal to the distance in the gymnasium. I was counting the rebels while I was there. I counted 28 of them in the gym alone, but I am sure they were more than 50, although I cannot prove that. But the suicide bombers were three, that's for sure. Two were slim, young girls, and obviously fatigued. The third one was taller and she had a veil."

Maria Semisynov, a senior prosecutor with the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, asked about the terrorists' attitude to the hostages. Kazbek Misikov replied, "At first they tried to make silence shooting in the ceiling, but to children's shy requests they let them go to the toilet. But when they learnt that the number of hostages was deliberately understated, they went mad, they could hit a child, an old person, and they said, 'This is another Dubrovka here, they are getting ready for an onslaught."

"I saw one sniper," Kazbek Misikov continued. "He went to the weight training room to drink coffee. They made us look down when he was passing by, but I looked at him on the quiet. He spoke pure Russian, without an accent, and there were quite a few of such people. He was red-haired and red-faced. But when I attended the identification, he was not among the killed rebels."

Kazbek Misikov also witnessed the conversation between Ruslan Aushev and Colonel (the assumed leader of the terrorist operation, Khuchbarov - ed.).

"When Aushev came in on the second day, his face turned pale, he obviously had not expected to see such a number of hostages. He told Colonel, 'I want to offer myself for the children to be safe. You know me?'

Colonel: Yeah, you're a man.

R.A.: Let the children go.

C.: I'll release three.

R.A.: Only three?

C.: Okay, I'll release 25.'"

"On 3 September an explosion thundered," Kazbek Misikov went on. "The explosion was outside, I am sure, the windowpanes flew in. After two explosions a part of the terrorists were already not in the school, that is also certain. And I am sure the button they were standing on before the explosions was a dummy, they were too careless when replacing each other."

Nurpashi Kulayev, b. 1980, a native of Engenoi, Nozhai-Yurt district, Chechnya, is charged under eight articles of the Russian Criminal Code. In particular, he is charged of banditry, terrorism, murder, an attempt on the life of a law enforcement agent, hostage-taking and illegal storage, carrying and purchase of weapons, munitions and explosives.

The hostage-taking in school No 1 in Beslan on 1 September 2004 led to 330 people dying, including 317 hostages, 186 of them children. Those killed also included two officers of the Russian Civil Defence and Emergencies Ministry, a resident of Beslan who was taking part in rescuing the hostages, and 10 officers of the Russian Federal Security Service. Wounded were 728 hostages and Beslan residents, as well as 55 Federal Security Service officers, policemen, and military men. The terrorist seized a total of 1,128 hostages in the school.

• Beslan victims give evidence