Beslan group rejects death penalty for attacker
A group of victims from the 2004 Beslan school hostage seizure today rejected the death penalty for the man alleged to be the only surviving attacker, despite prosecutors’ and many other victims’ calls for him to be executed.
The Voice of Beslan, one of several survivors’ and victims’ groups in the small southern Russian city, said in a statement that they “did not want to become barbarians in response to barbarity”.
A verdict is expected any day now in the trial of Nur-Pashi Kulayev, who has admitted participating in the September 2004 attack but denied killing anybody
Prosecutors have called for the death penalty for Kulayev, despite Russia’s eight-year moratorium on capital punishment.
A rival victim support group, the Beslan Mothers’ Committee, wants a national referendum to restore the death penalty.
The attack on Beslan’s School No. 1 resulted in the deaths of more than 330 people, more than half of whom were children.
