AP - The only suspect known to have survived the Beslan school siege has been convicted over the deaths of more than 300 people - many of them children - and sentenced to life in prison, touching off an emotional scene in which the mothers of some victims tried to attack the defendant in court.
The verdict returned by the court in southern Russia ended a yearlong trial in the September 2004 hostage-taking that survivors and relatives of those who died say has left essential questions unanswered.
The attack killed 331 people, more than half of them children, as well as 31 suspected militants and 11 elite special forces soldiers. Most of the victims died when explosions tore through the school and security forces stormed the building.
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Nur-Pashi Kulayev, but Russia imposed a moratorium on capital punishment when it joined the Council of Europe a decade ago.
"Kulayev deserves the death penalty, but is sentenced to life in prison because a moratorium is in place," Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov said.
Asked whether he understood the verdict, Kulayev, a Chechen, nodded his freshly shaved head up and down. His lawyer said later Kulayev plans to appeal.
As the judge read the verdict, some victims' mothers threw themselves shrieking on the glass-and-metal cage where Kulayev has stood throughout the trial. Police struggled to restrain them.
Militants attacked the school on September 1, 2004, taking more than 1,100 children, parents and staff hostage and herding them into a gymnasium, which they rigged with explosives.
Survivors and victims' relatives claim many deaths occurred because troops fired at the school from tanks and flame-throwers, setting off a fire that caused the roof to collapse over many of the wounded.
The judge said Kulayev detonated a bomb that harmed hostages and government troops. He said 16 male hostages whom the militants executed on the first day of the assault had died in part due to Kulayev's actions.
Kulayev was also found guilty of shooting children and other hostages who tried to escape the school on the chaotic third day of the crisis. He had claimed in court that while he participated in the raid, he did not kill anyone.
Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolai Shepel, who led the government's case, said he was satisfied with the verdict.
"Kulayev has been pronounced guilty on all counts," Shepel told reporters.
But victims' relatives were deeply critical of the trial, and the Mothers of Beslan activist group accused prosecutors of carrying out a "superficial and one-sided investigation".
The group said investigators had not probed who was responsible for a chain of alleged errors including failure to take security measures in spite of a heightened terrorism danger, refusal to negotiate with the hostage-takers, lack of preparation for storming the school, and "uncontrolled use of tanks, flame-throwers, grenade-launchers and other weapons".
Many victims' relatives have accused the government of a cover-up, saying the militants had help from corrupt officials to allow them to cross heavily policed territory to reach Beslan. They say many victims died needlessly in a botched rescue.
"I did not go to court to become convinced of Kulayev's guilt, but to reconstruct all the circumstances of the terrorist attack and find the truth," said Aneta Gadiyeva, whose daughter was killed.
"But I did not learn anything new and did not get any answers."
Kulayev, during a visit by his lawyer after the verdict, looked tired and depressed, said the lawyer, Albert Pliyev.
"My client does not agree with the verdict. We will prepare an appeal and file it with a higher court," he said.
The lawyer said Kulayev maintained he had unwillingly joined the hostage-taking and had been made a scapegoat.
On the street outside the court, pandemonium broke out after the court session as relatives shouted and tussled with one another and with reporters.
"I expected the death penalty and it is not right he was sentenced to life in prison," said Rita Sidakova, a leader of the Mothers of Beslan.
But Ella Kesayeva, of the rival Voice of Beslan organisation, said Kulayev remained too valuable a witness and that he should not be killed.
"Preserving Kulayev's life gives us hope that all circumstances of the terrorist act in Beslan sooner or later will be investigated," Kesayeva said.
"Alive, Kulayev can give evidence on the main part of the case. We hope to learn the truth about Beslan."
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