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Russian judge to sentence Kulayev, only surviving Beslan hostage-taker
A Russian judge retired to consider his verdict on Thursday on the only person to stand trial for the Beslan school siege that killed 300 people, half of them children. Prosecutors have requested the death penalty for Nurpashi Kulayev, who they say is the only surviving hostage-taker of the group that stormed Beslan’s school in September 2004 with the intention of killing as many hostages as possible.
Good idea. Can't think of many people who deserve it more.
However, some victims’ relatives say the authorities are using Kulayev as a scapegoat. They say a heavy-handed rescue operation caused many of the deaths but no officials have so far been brought to trial.
There wouldn't have been a heavy-handed response if the bastards hadn't taken the kiddies hostage, would there?
“I do not consider myself guilty, not for the death of a single child or adult,” said Kulayev, his voice trembling, from a glass box in the courtroom when the judge asked him to enter a final plea.
"I have no conscience. I'm a psychopath."
“As for the people who are guilty, let them confess their guilt when they are caught,” he said.
Have you been helping to catch them?
The judge hearing the case in Vladikavkaz, capital of the North Ossetia region in southern Russia, said the court would reconvene to announce its verdict. He gave no date. A moratorium on the death penalty is in force in Russia, so the harshest sentence would be life imprisonment.
Shoot him. He deserves it. If you can't bring yourselves to dispose of the little darling, dump him 150 miles north of Khabarovsk and put him to work chipping ice.
Five women who lost relatives in the siege were on Thursday on the seventh day of a hunger strike in protest against a trial they say has been a whitewash. “The [officials] want to cover up Beslan. They do not want to punish the people who are to blame...who gave the order for tanks and grenade launchers to fire on the school,” said Ella Kesayeva of the pressure group Voice of Beslan. Her group has demanded a retrial. Other relatives’ groups have supported the death penalty for Kulayev.
I'd go with the other relatives' groups. Don't confuse one fight with another. He should have been sentenced and executed a year ago.
An official inquiry into the massacre concluded police and intelligence services were negligent. It said they might have prevented the attack if they had improved security at schools. The inquiry did not point the finger at senior officials who led the chaotic rescue operation. The inquiry chairman said that whatever mistakes officials had made, ultimate blame for the deaths rested with the hostage-takers.
Bingo. One set of blame doesn't cancel out the other.
President Vladimir Putin has said Beslan was part of a campaign of international terrorism that also included the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
Thank you for that statement of the obvious.
Soon after the siege, he initiated sweeping political reforms — including abolishing direct elections for regional governors — which he said were designed to help Russia defend itself against terrorist attacks. Kulayev, a Chechen, has told the court he was among the hostage-takers in the school but he has said he did not kill anyone.
Doesn't matter if you killed anyone or not. You were there.
The judge is sitting without a jury.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=142939