Beslan: official version disproved

The hearing of the case of Nurpashi Kulayev, the only surviving terrorist who had taken part in the Beslan school attack, continued in North Ossetia's Supreme Court today. Under way is interrogation of underage victims who came to the trial, seven in number, together with their legal representatives.

A sensational statement was made by Sarmat Khudalov, 10, a former hostage. Taking the stand in the courthouse, Sarmat at once blurted out, "I was taking out weapons from the stage in the assembly hall in the school. They broke the stage there," and he cried. After a short break, the third form pupil gave evidence answering questions of the prosecution and the defence.

"On the first day, about ten senior pupils and I were ordered to stand up and go to the first floor, to the assembly hall. There, a terrorist broke a hole in the stage with the bar of a barbell and told us to crawl under the scene, to the end. We crawled in, and there, at the end, stood iron cases with weapons. We took out the weapons and put them on the stage. The cases were full. There were submachine guns, grenades of two types, and also mines with a small screen and figures. We were told to bring them down, to the classroom opposite the gymnasium. There were terrorists too. On the second day, they made us stand in the windows in the gymnasium. I stood there all day long, then got down and lay down near my sister."

Representatives of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office had formerly denied that there had been a cache with weapons in school No 1. Statements similar to Sarmat's had been made previously, but later the victims denied their own evidence indicating pressure on the part of law enforcement and security agencies.

The official version was also disproved by another statement of the ten-year-old boy: "And I saw four suicide bomber women. They were in the school when we had not yet been driven there. But I did not see them later."

Kazbek Torchinov, a lecturer at the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute who is recognised as a victim because property damage was caused to him, also gave evidence.

"My house is opposite the school and it was being shot at from the direction of the school. However, I was watching everything attentively all the three days and I would like to give my evidence. I testify that I personally counted that the terrorists were at least 45 in number. Also, the school was no sealed off during the terrorist act, that's all bluff, and many terrorists escaped," Mr Torchinov said.

Mr Torchinov claims that he visited the school on 5 September, after the terrorist act, on purpose, to give evidence later. "I knew that that would be necessary. I saw clearly that part of the newly-repaired ceiling had been carefully taken to pieces in the library. It had not been broken, but unscrewed, and the screws had been laid together near the wall. A machine-gun, if taken apart, could fit into that ceiling. The floors in the library were cut out carefully. This all was not destroyed because of explosions and shelling, this all had been carefully taken apart during the hostage-taking. And how naive one must be after that to believe Shepel (Russia's Deputy Prosecutor General — ed.). They (terrorists — ed.) had worked there long before their invasion."

Irina Avdonina, the librarian, was taken hostage together with her son on 1 September 2004. "I came to the school after holidays, on 27 August, because I had to wash the library. The ceiling had been repaired there in summer, so I had to clean up the dust there. It was a bit strange, as I hardly opened the door with the key, it wouldn't open for a long while. I went in and there was a thick layer of working dust there. I had not come to the school between 1 July and 27 August 2004, and headmaster Lidia Tsaliyev had had the keys. And when the terrorists had not yet driven us to the school, one gunman shouted loudly and excitedly, "Where is the library?" I waved my hand towards the library and he went there."

Beslan Mothers Committee member Ella Kesayev commented on the hearing results to Caucasian Knot. The prosecution was discontent with Mr Torchinov's evidence, according to Ms Kesayev. "'Who invited him?' was what the prosecutors said when he began to speak about the numbers of terrorists," the Beslan Mothers Committee member emphasised.

The next hearing of the case in the Supreme Court of North Ossetia will begin on Tuesday, 4 October.

The terrorist act in Beslan resulted in 331 people dying in early September 2004, including 318 hostages, a local resident who took part in saving the hostages, two officers of the Civil Defence and Emergencies Ministry, and 10 commandos. One more victim of the terrorist act, 32-year-old Marina Zhukayev died in a Vladikavkaz hospital in early August 2005, having been connected to a medical ventilation apparatus all that time.

• Hostages used as human shield in Beslan