| The Prosecutor General's Office fulfilled the president's instructions ahead of schedule On Saturday, at a meeting with members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, President Putin instructed Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to send representatives of the central apparatus of the Prosecutor General’s Office to Beslan to conduct “a comprehensive representative check of the entire body of information available on this case.” The reason for this was Vladimir Putin’s meeting the day before with the mothers of the children killed in Beslan, who told the head of state some of the circumstances of the tragedy, about which nothing was said in the official investigation.
The main issues in the ongoing investigation that require verification appear to be data from Beslan residents about the responsibility of officials at all levels who allowed the school to be seized, as well as the use of heavy armored vehicles and flamethrowers during the storming of the building. However, just a few hours later, Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel gave an explanation on this matter at a press conference in Vladikavkaz. He also named the officials who “missed” the terrorist raid, and explained when and how guns and flamethrowers were used. Although until now investigators have denied in principle the use of such weapons during the operation in Beslan.
As Mr. Shepel said, the Main Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office in the North Caucasus is conducting an investigation against five police officers whose negligence led to the terrorist attack in Beslan. "An investigation is being completed against the head of the Malgobek district police department (a gang was formed in this area - Ed. ) and his deputy. The head of the Pravoberezhny district police department and his two deputies (who received coded telegrams from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but ignored them, about the threat of militant attacks on schools. - - Ed. ) are already familiar with the criminal case. A case has been opened against them under Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - criminal negligence leading to grave consequences,” said the Deputy Prosecutor General.
Heavy weapons, as Mr. Shepel said, were used in Beslan after all the hostages had been taken out. “The head of the operational headquarters, Major General Andreev, at 13.10 gave an order to the Special Purpose Center to rescue the hostages. It was not an assault, but dictated by circumstances, a rescue operation was carried out. Heavy weapons, flamethrowers, and tanks were not used at this time. Only after establishing that there were no hostages at the school, the head of headquarters made a decision to use heavy weapons at the terrorists’ firing points. Nine shots were fired from the Shmel RPO. There were also tanks at the scene of the operation, but the shot was fired from only one T-72 tank.” Alexey GRISHIN |
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