Nurpashi Kulayev

Nurpaschi Aburgkaschewitsch Kulajew ( Russian: Нур-Паши Абургкашевич Кулаев ); (Born October 28, 1980 in Engenoi , Noshai-Yurtovsky rajon in eastern Chechnya ) is a Chechen terrorist and the only surviving hostage-taker from Beslan (September 1-3, 2004). His brother Chanpaschi died while being held hostage. Nurpashi Kulayev was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2006.

Life

Nurpaschi Kulayev was born in Engenoi in Chechnya in 1980. His mother (Ajmani) and father (Oburg-Hajj) had returned from exile in Kazakhstan in 1956, where the Chechens had been deported under Joseph Stalin . Nurpaschi grew up with his ten siblings in Engenoi.

His mother worked on a tobacco plantation, his father was a state farm -Arbeiter. His brother Chanpashi, who was nine years older than him, attended the Koran school , which may have led him to participate in the Beslan hostage-taking . Nurpaschi attended secondary school and trained as a carpenter. He was unemployed until his arrest on September 3, 2004.

After Chanpashi Kulayev served in the Russian army , followed by his brother Nurpaschi, he decided to live underground. He fought alongside Shamil Basayev in the Chechnya wars against the Russian troops. Hanpashi lost his right forearm during an inspection at a military checkpoint. Nurpaschi worked with the rebels in the mountains where Chanpaschi lived, as a water carrier and assistant. Hanpaschi was eventually arrested but was released under an amnesty in 2001.

Nurpaschi Kulayev and his brother Chanpaschi moved to the Ingush village of Sagopschi in autumn 2003 . There they lived undisturbed with their families in a small apartment building. Nurpaschi with wife and two children, Chanpaschi with wife and one child. On June 15, 2004, the two brothers suddenly left the village and found shelter in the neighboring village of Psedach in the last few weeks before the hostage-taking .

The Beslan hostage-taking

→ Main article : Beslan hostage-taking

Nurpaschi Kulayev, who saved a young girl's life towards the end of the hostage situation, fled the building with a group of hostages and hid behind a truck belonging to the Russian units. There he was dragged out by passers-by who had seen the massacre and handed over to the police. He was arrested and repeatedly protested in front of the camera that he had not shot hostages.

Court hearing

On May 16, 2006 at 10 a.m., the trial of Kulayev began in Vladikavkaz . He has been charged on several counts, including murder, attempted murder, banditry, and possession of weapons. Initially, the process threatened to fail because no defender could be found for Kulayev. Eventually a public defender was appointed. According to eyewitnesses, Kulayev, who had to appear in front of his judge Tamerlan Agusarov in a steel cage, sometimes seemed embarrassed, sometimes absent, and allegedly he was once asleep.

The process took several days. Kulayev repeatedly stressed his innocence. There were few witnesses to testify to his innocence. He himself testified that he did not shoot hostages because he had two children himself. He also stated that the terrorists had received an order from Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov to unleash a new war in the Caucasus. As a result, the kidnappers would have been summoned in a forest in Ingushetia at the end of August and familiarized themselves with the hostage-taking plan.

The chairwoman of the Beslan Mothers' Committee, Susanna Dudiyeva, showed sympathy for the accused and helped him find information that could indicate his innocence. However, the judge found Kulayev guilty and imposed the death penalty, which is pronounced but not carried out in Russia. Therefore, Kulayev is serving a life sentence. First he was taken to the prison on the island of Ognenny ("island of fire") near Belozersk in Vologda Oblast , later to the prison camp Polyarnaya sowa ("snowy owl") in Charp in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug .