29 September 2005, 19:34
Weapons confirmed to have been in school
The case of Nurpashi Kulayev, a terrorist who took part in the attack on school No 1 in Beslan, continued to be heard in the capital of North Ossetia, Vladikavkaz, today. It was planned to listen to the evidence of those victims who had not been able to come to the courthouse when summoned. However, three former hostages left the trial in protest against the presence of Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel. Only one victim, Aza Tsakhilov, gave evidence, according to RIA Novosti.
As Ms Tsakhilov confirmed, the terrorist had stored weapons under the floor in the school.
She claims that the gunmen ripped up the floor in the school and took out weapons from there. It had previously been declared, according to investigation materials, that no weapons had been brought to the school in advance, RIA Novosti says. "I saw terrorists break several floorboards with the bar of a barbell in the gymnasium and take out a machine gun from there. They put those floorboards back then," said Ms Tsakhilov.
This evidence confirms the evidence of Sarmat Khudalov, a ten-year-old former hostage. He had told that gunmen had forced him and several other boys to take out weapons and munitions from under the floor in the assembly hall. "One of the terrorists broke out several boards in the stage in the centre of the assembly hall with the bar of a barbell and ordered us to crawl in there and take out weapons and munitions that were there. I was also ordered to carry boxes with grenades to the room near the gymnasium where gunmen were, and they opened those boxes and filled their vests (special vests with pockets for ammunition)," said the boy.
Ms Tsakhilov said that she had seen Mr Kulayev during the school seizure. The gunman was standing near the dining hall shooting at the ceiling, according to her.
The North Ossetian Supreme Court has interrogated 203 out of 1,343 victims, Angela Suanov, chief of the press service for the court, said. Three hundred and forty-three victims have been invited to the court, according to her. "These people will now be interrogated. The Court will only start to interrogate eyewitnesses when it has finished interrogating victims," Interfax quotes Ms Suanov as saying.
Meanwhile, psychologists' concerns about the condition of former Beslan hostages are not decreasing. Many Beslan residents need psychological aid, with more than 100 of them in need of it urgently, in doctors' opinion. This is the conclusion made by specialists from Moscow's Serbskii Institute of Forensic Psychiatry who have visited Beslan, Kommersant newspaper reports. They think that the city may be deserted by people and completely abandoned unless the problem is tackled currently.
Seventy-seven women and fifty men who have lost their relatives in the terrorist act need urgent assistance from specialists, according to doctors' estimates.
Psychiatrists are also concerned about the condition of Beslan doctors. It has already been arranged for them to be admitted to the Serbskii Institute. However, the doctors have so far declined treatment. They have much work: the number of heart attacks alone has increased 150% over one year in the city, according to some information.
