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Agence France-Presse

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday there were “serious failings” in Russia’s handling of the Beslan school siege by Chechen rebels in 2004 in which over 330 people were killed, many of them children.
The court said although Russian authorities had information that an attack was being planned on a school in North Ossetia, they failed to do enough to disrupt the plot and had not sufficiently protected the hostages.
Russia reacted furiously to the judgement, saying it was “absolutely unacceptable”.
The school was stormed on September 1, 2004 by militants demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from the war-torn republic of Chechnya.
The attackers herded 1,100 people including 800 children into a gymnasium and rigged the building with explosives.
Watch: a look back at the 2004 Beslan school siege


After three days of fruitless negotiations, explosions in the school prompted Russian security forces to storm the gymnasium.
A total of 184 children were among the 334 dead as the siege came to a bloody end.
Russian authorities argue they took the best course of action faced with armed extremists, but many of the survivors and their relatives believe the security services were to blame for the firefight.
The case was brought to the Strasbourg-based court by more than 400 Russians either involved in the incident or whose relatives were taken hostage or killed.

“The authorities had been in possession of sufficiently specific information of a planned terrorist attack in the area, linked to an educational institution,” the court said.
“Nevertheless, not enough had been done to disrupt the terrorists meeting and preparing.”
The judges found that “insufficient steps had been taken to prevent (the attackers) travelling on the day of the attack; security at the school had not been increased; and neither the school nor the public had been warned of the threat”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found it “impossible” to agree with the wording of the judgement.
“Such phrasing for a country that has suffered an attack is absolutely unacceptable,” he told journalists.
Asked if Russia would fulfil the terms of the ruling over compensating the victims and their relatives, Peskov said that “all the necessary legal actions linked with this ruling will be undertaken.”
The justice ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Russia would appeal against the ruling within the three month deadline. It said that a number of the court’s conclusions were “not backed up.”

The findings over the operation to rescue the hostages showed the court did not examine the tragic events “in sufficient detail,” the ministry said.
It said the court did not understand “the full seriousness of the situation in Beslan after the seizing of the hostages” and the “risks of the process of carrying out a rescue operation by law enforcement authorities.”
The court’s findings over the use by Russian special forces of indiscriminate weapons while hostages were still in the building were “baseless,” the ministry said.
The court found that through its actions, the Russian state had violated Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees a right to life.
There was an additional violation in the use of “lethal force by security forces”.

“In the absence of proper legal rules, powerful weapons such as tank cannon grenade launchers and flame-throwers had been used on the school,” which had contributed to the casualties among the hostage, the court said.
The judges also said there were “serious shortcomings” in the investigation into the attack, especially that there had been “no proper examination of how the victims had died”.
The claimants in the case say the authorities were primarily seeking to eliminate the attackers with little care taken to avoid deaths of hostages.

Their lawyers have particularly criticised the lack of in-depth autopsies on the bodies of 116 victims found burned in the gymnasium.
The massacre was one of a string of brutal attacks Russia suffered in the 1990s and 2000s stemming mainly from an insurgency in Chechnya that morphed from a separatist rebellion into an Islamist campaign.
Russian and international experts describe Beslan as a political shock for Russia comparable to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and say it marked a turning point for the Kremlin’s policy in the Caucasus.

There were two separatist wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and 2000s, but violence in the region has largely been suppressed under the iron-fisted rule of strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
However, the overwhelmingly Muslim Russian North Caucasus has emerged as one of the major sources of foreign jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq.
In January, Kadyrov said his forces had detained more than 50 insurgents linked to the Islamic State group in a security operation.


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Russia furious at European court’s ruling of how it handled Beslan school siege that left 330 dead

Russian special forces take cover during the rescue operation of Beslan's school. File photo: AFP

FILE, In this Friday, Sept. 3, 2004 file photo a man carries an injured child escaped from a seized school in Beslan, Russia. The European Court of Human Rights said Thursday, April 13, 2017, that Russia failed to adequately protect victims of a 2004 school siege in the city of Beslan that left more than 300 people dead. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

epa05905627 (FILE) - A file photo dated 03 September 2004 (reissued 13 April 2017) showing soldiers giving first aid to former hostage after special forces entered her school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia, 01 September 2014. Russian security forces stormed the school two days after Chechen terrorists took around 1,200 school children and teachers hostage. According to official figures, more than 330 civilians died in the bloody shootout, 186 of them children. The European Court of Human Rights ruled, 13 April 2017, that serious failings by the Russian authorities meant that the victims' right to life was violated, and ordered Russia to pay 3.19 million US dollars in reparations. EPA/STR *** Local Caption *** 00268227

FILE In this Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 file photo Alina, 7, left, injured during the school siege in Beslan that ended with the deaths of at least 330 hostages, mourns together with her relatives for her 12-year-old brother Akhsarbek Tskayev, who was killed in the incident, in a cemetery in Beslan, Russia. The European Court of Human Rights said Thursday, April 13, 2017, that Russia failed to adequately protect victims of a 2004 school siege in the city of Beslan that left more than 300 people dead. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

FILE In this Saturday, Sept. 4, 2004 file photo emergency workers collect corpses outside of a school in Beslan, Russia. The European Court of Human Rights said Thursday, April 13, 2017, that Russia failed to adequately protect victims of a 2004 school siege in the city of Beslan that left more than 300 people dead. (AP Photo, File)

(FILES) This file photo taken on September 03, 2004 shows a soldier helping an injured woman during the rescue operation of Beslan's school, northern Ossetia. The European Court of Human Rights ruled on April 13, 2017 that there were "serious failings" in Russia's handling of the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia in 2004, in which over 330 people were killed. The court said although Russian authorities had received information that a terror attack was being planned, insufficient measures had been taken to disrupt the plot, and security at the school had not been increased. / AFP PHOTO / YURI TUTOV

(FILES) This file photo taken on September 9, 2004 shows the destroyed school in Beslan. The European Court of Human Rights ruled on April 13, 2017 that there were "serious failings" in Russia's handling of the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia in 2004, in which over 330 people were killed. The court said although Russian authorities had received information that a terror attack was being planned, insufficient measures had been taken to disrupt the plot, and security at the school had not been increased. / AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV

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Kremlin rejects ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Moscow failed to take steps that could have averted a hostage siege


Russia furious at European court’s ruling of how it handled Beslan school siege that left 330 dead

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Kremlin rejects ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Moscow failed to take steps that could have averted a hostage siege

Kremlin rejects ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Moscow failed to take steps that could have averted a hostage siege