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ECHR rules not to revise its judgement on Beslan hostage taking case

The Beslan tragedy claimed 334 lives

PARIS, September 19. /TASS/. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled not to revise its ruling on the Beslan hostage crisis case.

According to a press release made public on Tuesday, the Court’s Grand Chamber panel of five judges that met on Monday decided to reject the request to refer the case to the Grand Chamber. Hence, the judgement in this case was pronounced as final.

The ruling not to revise its previous judgement on the Beslan hostage crisis case has drawn a line under this case which satisfies neither of the sides, Mikhail Trepashkin, the victim’s lawyer, told TASS on Tuesday.

"We can say that a line under the litigation has been drawn. But its outcome satisfies neither of the sides - neither the injured party, which thinks the sum of compensation is not enough, nor the Russian Federation as it means that the court has recognized that the hostages’ right to life was violated during the operation to free them due to the excessive use of force," he said.

On April 13, the European Court of Human rights pronounced its verdict on complaints filed by relatives of the Beslan terrorist attack and ordered Russia to pay 409 applicants some three million euros in compensation. The case concerns the terrorist attack on a school in the city of Beslan, North Ossetia in September 2004. On the list of plaintiffs there are 409 names, including those of relatives of the hostages killed in the attack and in the operation to storm the school building, as well as injured hostages.

In July 2017, Russia’s justice ministry challenged the ECHR ruling pointing to a number of gaps. In early September, the Beslan Mothers committee applied to the ECHR to turn down the Russian justice ministry’s request to revise the case at the Grand Chamber.

Beslan terror attack

The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) started on September 1, 2004, when a gang of 30 terrorists seized Beslan’s school N. 1 on the first day of the academic year during a gala ceremony in the yard. The terrorists forced more than one thousand hostages, including small kids, into the school’s gym and kept them there for three days without food and water. The operation to free the hostages began on September 3.

The tragedy claimed 334 lives. Of those killed 318 were hostages, including 186 children. Nine commandoes, two emergencies ministry specialists and 15 police were killed and another 810 hostages, commandoes, police and troops were injured.