Parents seek justice

last updated 8 January 2015

Vladikavkaz, Russia

Parents of children who died last year after Chechen extremists took over a school have shut down the trial of the only surviving militant. Nurpashi Kulayev, 24, was one of a group of Chechens who took more than 1,000 people hostage at an elementary school in Beslan, Russia, last September. When Russian forces stormed the school, almost all the militants were killed—along with more than 300 children. The parents this week packed the courtroom and shouted down the judge, saying Kulayev was a scapegoat. They demanded trials for the guards who failed to stop the militants, and for officials who ordered the storming of the school. “My son is dead,” said Susanna Dudiyeva, “and I am angry the state had to kill 330 people to destroy 32 guerrillas.”