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Beslan School Siege Suspect Found Guilty of Terrorism
A Russian judge said on Tuesday the only surviving member of the group that seized a school and 1,300 hostages in the town of Beslan in 2004 had committed an act of terrorism, as he began reading his verdict in the trial, the Reuters news agency reported. Prosecutors have requested the death penalty for Chechen Nurpashi Kulayev, born in 1980, although an official moratorium on capital punishment would lead to such a sentence being changed to one of life imprisonment.The Interfax news agency quoted the courts ruling as saying Kulayev had taken hostages in an attempt to force the state to change its policy. Kulayev has said that he was forced to take part in the raid, which killed 331 police and hostages more than half of them children and all the rest of the rebel group, against his will but the judge rejected his argument. The court is yet to pronounce whether it will find the young Chechen guilty of other crimes he is charged with, and the summing up will take several days. Posted by: Steve 2006-05-16 |
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