Victims interrupt Kulayev case hearing

North Ossetia's Supreme Court declared a break in the hearing of the case of Mr Nurpashi Kulayev, a participant in the Beslan school attack, earlier today.

The court only managed to interrogate one witness, Mr Boris Iliin, whose daughter and two grandsons had been killed in Beslan. After the interrogation, there began spontaneous shouts of women from among victims in the courtroom.

Supreme Court Chairman Tamerlan Aguzarov had to declare a break. No one was allowed to leave the courtroom and broadcasting from there was temporarily stopped, according to RIA Novosti.

On Tuesday, 29 November, North Ossetia's ex-Minister of Internal Affairs, Kazbek Dzantiyev, gave evidence as a witness in the Supreme Court. Solicited by the lawyer of the victims, the interrogation continued for about two hours.

Mr Dzantiyev said that he had not been a member of the operations headquarters during the Beslan school seizure. According to the former minister, his jurisdiction comprised coordination of militarised agency units and school blockade.

In saying so, Mr Dzantiyev claimed that he did not know what forces had taken part in the onslaught. He does not know the properties of the weapons that were used in the onslaught either, or the way heavy weapons were used.

On 24 November, evidence was given by Mr Victor Sobolev, commander of the 58th army and a member of the operations headquarters for the rescue of hostages. Mr Sobolev resolutely denied the version that tanks had begun to shoot at the building when hostages had not yet left it, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reported.

Earlier, Mr Isakov, a witness, said at the trial that he had seen tanks shoot, but that had taken place in the evening, when it had already been dark. Victims then asked Mr Kulayev, the defendant, who said that he had heard tanks shoot when he had been in the dining hall, in the afternoon.

Tanks were also said to have been used during the onslaught on the seized school in Beslan at a hearing of the report of the North Ossetian parliamentary commission on Beslan earlier today.

• Beslan Mothers dissatisfied with parliamentary report

External links

• Beslan.ru

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