Georgia - Inglese

World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Court Grants Amnesty to Beslan Siege Police

[NYT - Europe]

A federal court granted amnesty to three policemen accused of negligence in failing to prevent a Chechen terrorist group from seizing a public school and more than 1,100 hostages in Beslan in 2004. Their trial, which began last year, had been seen as another chance to expose official bungling of the three-day siege, in which 333 people died, 186 of them children, and to turn up more information about lingering mysteries. Survivors and relatives, who accuse the government of a whitewash, reacted with dismay, shouting and rushing the judge, who was forced from the courtroom in North Ossetia before finishing reading his decision, according to local reports.