Witnesses fail to come

The hearing of the case of Mr Nurpashi Kulayev, a participant in the Beslan school No 1 seizure, continued in North Ossetia's Supreme Court earlier today.

No witness came to the trial, including Ingush ex-president Ruslan Aushev and businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev.

Victims addressed the court with several petitions at the beginning of the hearing. Victims in this case had earlier repeatedly came out for a number of officials to give evidence at the trial, among them: North Ossetia's ex-president Alexander Dzasokhov, Ingush ex-president Ruslan Aushev, businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev, and North Ossetia's ex-education minister Alina Levitskaya.

Alexander Dzasokhov answered the court's questions on 12 January, as Interfax reported.

Mr Dzasokhov emphasised that the terrorists had put forward only one political demand on 1 September: the coming to the school of Messrs Dzasokhov, Ziazikov, Aslakhanov, and Roshal. Other demands such as Chechnya's separation from Russia, but existence in the rouble zone, etc. had only become known when Mr Aushev had come out of the school. Mr Dzasokhov tried to give assurances that he had been ready to go to the school and "as a man was prepared for any outcome."

Mr Dzasokhov was trying to convince those present that his willingness to go to the school had been brought home to the terrorists by a professional negotiator, Khasan by name, but the gunmen had continued to insist on all the four coming. The victims then asked Mr Kulayev what Khuchbarov, the leader of the terrorists, said. The defendant answered that Khuchbarov had claimed that he would guarantee their life and, if all the four had come in, he would release 150 hostages for each of them.

Mr Dzasokhov emphasised that it was only impossible to find Ingush president Murat Ziazikov: "Everyone was looking for Ziazikov: Yakovlev (the Russian president's former envoy to the South federal district — CK), Kulakovskii, and Rogozin. He was finally found, but he said that he was far away and could not come to Beslan."

• Controversial evidence in Kulayev case