The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Russia must pay nearly 3 million euros to relatives of victims of a school siege that left 334 people dead in the southern town of Beslan.

In a ruling released on April 13, the court found that Russian authorities failed to protect the schoolchildren, teachers, and others killed in the ordeal, which began when militants seized the school and ended in bloodshed and chaos with a botched rescue bid.

It ordered Russia to pay 2,955,000 euros ($3.1 million) to 409 relatives of victims, plus 88,000 euros in legal costs.

Russia swiftly condemned the ruling, calling it "unacceptable" and vowing to appeal.

Militants stormed into the school in the North Ossetia region on September 1, 2004, the first day of classes, taking about 1,200 children, parents, and staff hostage. They demanded the withdrawal of federal troops from neighboring Chechnya, the site of two post-Soviet separatist wars and then the center of an Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus.

Most of the victims were killed by explosions or gunfire during the Russian special forces' assault on the school on the third day of the hostage crisis. The dead included 186 schoolchildren.

The court said the special forces used "tank cannon, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers."

The response "contributed to the casualties among the hostages" and broke treaty requirements to respect the right to life by using lethal force when it was not "absolutely necessary," it said.

The ruling also said Russian authorities had been aware of the danger of militant attacks on public places such as schools but suggested they had not prepared adequately.

"While certain security measures had been taken, in general the preventive measures in the present case could be characterized as inadequate," it said.

PHOTO GALLERY: Three Days Of Terror In Beslan

Russia's 9/11

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said that Moscow "cannot agree with such a conclusion [about an incident] in a country that has been a victim of terrorist attacks multiple times."

"Unfortunately the list of such countries is growing and is unfortunately growing regularly, so such conclusions for a country that endured an attack are absolutely unacceptable," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russian officials sometimes refer to the Beslan attack as the Russian equivalent of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, and accuse the West of failing to step up cooperation against terrorism in its wake.

Announcing its intention to appeal, the Russian Justice Ministry contended that the ECHR judges failed to understand the gravity of the situation and specifics of efforts taken to free the hostages.

The September 2004 school siege started the day after a suicide bomber killed at least 10 people outside a subway station in Moscow, and a week after bombs authorities said were detonated by Chechen women brought down two Russian passenger planes on August 24, killing 90 people.

The spate of attacks undermined Putin's claims to have reined in militants from Chechnya and other North Caucasus republics during his first term, and prompted him to take measures that critics said tightened the Kremlin's control over politics and rolled back democracy in Russia.

Some of the survivors, victims' relatives, and other Russians blame the authorities for most of the deaths in Beslan, but no Russian official has been held responsible.

More than 400 victims and relatives filed the case with the Strasbourg court after a Russian investigation stalled years ago.

A lawyer who represented victims and their families said the ECHR ruling was only a partial victory, and that the focus would now be on trying to hold Russian officials to account.

"We are not entirely happy with the decision," Sergei Knyazkin, a lawyer for the Beslan Mothers Committee campaign group, told the Reuters news agency. "Three million euros in compensation is not enough, because you cannot measure the death of children in such figures."

"The victims insist that the authorities carry the blame for the badly conducted operation to free the hostages in Beslan," Knyazkin said.

Russia often bristles at rulings against it by the ECHR, claiming they are politicized.

In December 2015, Putin signed legislation creating a mechanism that Russia says allows it to disregard international rulings, including those of the Strasbourg-based court, if they are believed to contravene the Russian Constitution.

With reporting by AFP, BBC, and AP</s>The European Court of Human Rights said Russia violated European human rights law and failed to prevent the 2004 Beslan school siege and deployed excessive force that exacerbated the death toll. The ruling comes after years of stalled domestic investigations into the bloody tragedy.

The court, ruling on Thursday, ordered Russia to pay 3 million euros to the families of the victims. The siege took the lives of 330 people, including 186 children.

Russia, which ratified the European Convention on Human Rights immediately denounced the ruling, dismissing the decision as “unacceptable” and saying it will appeal it. But it’s Russia’s own behavior that led to the court case in the first place. Russia’s investigations stalled, and the main one, which is still ongoing, suggests officials acted lawfully. So over 400 survivors and relatives of the victims filed applications to the court between 2007 and 2011. Russia now has three months to appeal the case to the Grand Chamber of Court.

In September 2004, 30 militants, followers of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, took more than 1000 people hostage in Beslan School Number One. They were demanding that Russia leave Chechnya (Beslan is in nearby North Ossetia). The hostages were kept in the school gym for three days. The gym was mined. Hostages were denied water.

Russia responded by setting off explosives and exchanging fire. Fire spread. The roof collapsed. Hundreds were killed. It was reminiscent of Moscow in 2002, when Russian forces responded to a hostage situation in a theater by pumping in toxic gas, killing 170.

Now, almost 13 years later, the ECHR has ruled Russia used disproportionate force, failed to try to minimize loss of life, failed to coordinate medical and rescue teams, and also knew that such an attack was coming and didn’t do anything to stop it — like stop the militants from meeting, or increase security at the school, or warn anyone. Additionally, “for one third of the victims, the exact cause of death had not been established,” because investigators didn’t fully forensically examine them, or even bother to locate the hostages’ bodies.

“The Court could not avoid the conclusion that this lack of responsibility and coordination had contributed, to some extent, to the tragic outcome of the events,” the judges said.

“We certainly cannot agree with such an assessment, in a country which has suffered from more than one terrorist attack,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said of the ruling. And, indeed, this ruling does come not too long after a bombing on the St. Petersburg metro that killed 14 — after which unfounded conspiracy theories of government involvement abounded, so often does the Kremlin make political hay out of tragedy.</s>Russia failed to adequately protect victims of a 2004 school siege in the city of Beslan that left more than 300 people dead, the European Court of Human Rights has said. In a ruling on Thursday, the France-based court said authorities did not take necessary preventive measures to save lives.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Wirral Globe.</s>Europe’s top human rights court ruled Thursday that Russia failed to protect human lives during a botched 2004 attempt to rescue hostages from a school that left more than 330 people dead, including 180 children.

The European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay €3 million total to the families of hundreds of victims, a decision that comes as relations between the West and Russia are at a historic low over the Syrian...</s>The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Russia must pay nearly 3 million euros to relatives of victims of a school siege that left 334 people dead in the southern town of Beslan.

In a ruling released on April 13, the court found that Russian authorities failed to protect the schoolchildren, teachers, and others killed in the ordeal, which began when militants seized the school and ended in bloodshed and chaos with a botched rescue bid.

It ordered Russia to pay 2,955,000 euros ($3.1 million) to 409 relatives of victims, plus 88,000 euros in legal costs.

The Kremlin swiftly condemned the ruling, calling it "unacceptable."

Militants -- mostly from the neighboring Ingushetia and Chechnya regions -- stormed into the school in the North Ossetia region on September 1, 2004, the first day of classes, taking about 1,200 children, parents, and staff hostage.

Most of the victims were killed by explosions or gunfire during the Russian special forces' assault on the school on the third day of the hostage crisis. The dead included 186 schoolchildren.

The court said the special forces used "tank cannon, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers."

The response "contributed to the casualties among the hostages" and broke treaty requirements to respect the right to life by using lethal force when it was not "absolutely necessary," it said.

The court also said Russian authorities had been aware of the danger of militant attacks on public places such as schools but suggested they had not prepared adequately.

"While certain security measures had been taken, in general the preventive measures in the present case could be characterized as inadequate," it said.

Some of the survivors, victims' relatives, and other Russians blame the authorities for most of the deaths, but no Russian official has been held responsible.

More than 400 people filed a case with the Strasbourg court after a Russian investigation stalled years ago.

With reporting by AFP, BBC, and AP</s>Th e European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia failed to protect the hostages of the Beslan school siege in which about 330 people died in 2004. In the siege, Chechen rebels took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children.

Th e operation by Russian forces to end it used disproportionate force, the court added. It also said that offi cials knew an attack was imminent but did not act. Russia said the ruling was “utterly unacceptable” and that it would appeal. No Russian offi cial has been held responsible for the high number of deaths, which included 186 children.

Masked men and women, wearing bomb belts, burst into Beslan’s School Number One, opening fi re in the courtyard as a ceremony marking the beginning of the school year was fi nishing. Th e hostages were crammed into their school sports hall beneath explosives strung from the basketball hoops.

Th eir captors were demanding Russian troops pull out of Chechnya. Th e tense siege ended suddenly on the third day with two deadly explosions and intense gunfire.

Witnesses described the operation by Russian security forces as chaotic, saying that the troops used excessive force and heavy weapons. Only one of the hostage takers was caught alive and put on trial.</s>MOSCOW (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Russia failed to adequately protect victims of a 2004 school siege in the city of Beslan that left more than 330 people dead, a verdict that Moscow said it would appeal.

The France-based court said authorities did not take necessary preventive measures to save lives. It said the security forces’ use of tank cannon, grenade launchers and flame-throwers contributed to casualties among the hostages. It also noted failures to increase security before the attack despite imminent threats against schools in the area.

A group of 32 heavily armed radical Islamic militants seized the school on the first day of class on Sept. 1, 2004, herding more than 1,000 people into the gymnasium and holding them hostage for nearly three days. The siege ended in gunfire and explosions, leaving 334 dead, more than half of them children. Over 800 people were wounded.

The court ordered that Russia pay nearly 3 million euros ($3.2 million) in total compensation to the 409 Russians who brought the case to the ECHR; they include people who were taken hostage, or injured or are relatives of the hostages or those killed and injured.

The Russian Justice Ministry, announcing its intention to appeal, contended that the judges failed to grasp the gravity of the situation during the siege and specifics of efforts taken to free the hostages.

The ministry said the court’s assessment of indiscriminate use of weapons by Russian special forces was groundless, citing results of an official Russian probe into the siege.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, also rejected the court’s view of disproportionate use of force by the government, saying that “such hypothetical assessment is hardly acceptable.”

He told reporters in a conference call that Russia, as a country that came under numerous terror attacks, can’t accept the ruling.

“Such wording is absolutely unacceptable for a country that came under attack,” Peskov said.

“All the necessary legal action regarding this ruling will be taken,” he added.

The head of the Mothers of Beslan group, Aneta Gadieva, said the payment ordered was meager.

“Somebody will get 5,000 euro, somebody will get 20,000 euro. That’s a small sum in compensation for moral damages,” she was quoted as telling state news agency Tass.

Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for organizing the school siege. It came amid a particularly violent period in the Islamist insurgency that was connected with the fight between Russian forces and Chechen separatists. A week before the seizure, suicide bombers downed two Russian airliners on the same night, killing a total of 90 people, and another suicide bomber killed 10 people outside a Moscow subway station.

Jim Heintz in Moscow and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.</s>BESLAN/MOSCOW: Russia broke European human rights law by using excessive force to storm a school seized by Islamist militants in 2004, causing a high number of hostages to be killed, the continent's rights court ruled on Thursday.

The Beslan school siege, in which more than 330 hostages lost their lives, including at least 180 children, ended in a chaotic gun battle and was the bloodiest incident of its kind in modern Russian history.

The three-day drama began when Islamist militants took more than 1,000 hostages in the small southern Russian town on the first day of the school year and called for independence for the majority Muslim region of Chechnya.

In the days and months afterwards, survivors accused the authorities of bungling the siege by using tanks, flamethrowers and grenade launchers while hostages were still cowering inside the school gym, and then covering up what happened.

On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg agreed with most of those allegations.

In particular, it said the heavy-handed way Russian forces stormed the school had "contributed to the casualties among the hostages" and violated the hostages' right to life enshrined in Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Authorities had failed to take reasonable preventive measures beforehand, the court ruled, despite knowing militants were planning to attack an educational institution.

They had also contributed "to some extent" to the tragic outcome, the court said, by not putting in place a proper command structure, a shortcoming it said led to a flawed rescue operation that did not minimise risks to the hostages.

It ordered Russia to pay 2.955 million euros (US$3.14 million) in damages and 88,000 euros in legal costs.

The Russian government said it would appeal the ruling.

"In a country that has been a victim of terrorist attacks multiple times, we cannot agree with such a conclusion," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, calling the ruling "unacceptable."

Russia's justice ministry said many of the court's findings were "unfounded" and complained evidence it had presented had been either ignored or misunderstood.

Ella Kesayeva, who lost two of her nephews and her brother-in-law in the siege, said she was disappointed that the court had come up with what she said was a low compensation figure.

"It seems that a life is not worth anything," she told Reuters in Beslan, saying a larger amount would have brought home the seriousness of what had happened and encourage the state to bring guilty officials to justice.

Emma Tagayeva, who lost her husband and both sons in the attack, said the ruling had brought some "moral satisfaction" but that she and other relatives would continue their fight for justice. "Impunity begets impunity," she said.

Elena Milashina, a campaigning journalist, posted a photograph from Beslan on social media showing some of the mothers of the victims standing around a long table laden with food and drink celebrating the court's ruling.

"Everything was not in vain," wrote Milashina. "We won."</s>Russia failed to adequately protect victims of a 2004 school siege in the city of Beslan that left more than 300 people dead, the European Court of Human Rights has said.

More than half the hostages killed were children.

In a ruling on Thursday, the France-based court said authorities did not take necessary preventive measures to save lives.

It said the security forces' use of tank cannon, grenade launchers and flame-throwers contributed to casualties among the hostages.

It noted failures to increase security before the attack despite imminent threats against schools in the area.

Armed radical Islamic assailants seized the school on the first day of class, prompting a long stand-off that ended in explosions and gunfire.</s>STRASBOURG/MOSCOW April 13 (Reuters) - Russian authorities breached European human rights laws when they stormed a school seized by Islamist militants in 2004, contributing to the deaths of more than 300 hostages, the continent's rights court ruled on Thursday.

Among the more than 330 dead were at least 180 children. A further 750 people were wounded when security forces used "tank cannon, grenade launchers and flamethrowers" while trying to free more than 1,000 hostages at the school in the southern Russian town of Beslan.

This, said the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, "contributed to the casualties among the hostages" and did not respect the hostages' "right to life" by failing to restrict lethal force to what was "absolutely necessary".

The court ordered Russia to pay 2.955 million euros ($3.14 million) in damages and 88,000 euros in legal costs.

The court also said Russian authorities had been aware of a possible attack on public places such as schools but had not prepared sufficiently. "While certain security measures had been taken, in general the preventive measures in the present case could be characterised as inadequate," it said.

Russia's government said it would appeal against the ruling. "We cannot agree with such a conclusion in a country that has been a victim of terrorist attacks multiple times," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"Unfortunately the list of such countries is growing and is unfortunately growing regularly, so such conclusions for a country that endured an attack are absolutely unacceptable," Peskov said.

A lawyer who represented victims of the siege and their families said they had only achieved a partial victory, and the focus would now be on trying to hold to account Russian officials over their failings.

"We are not entirely happy with the decision," said Sergei Knyazkin, a lawyer for campaign group the Beslan Mothers Committee. "Three million euros in compensation is not enough, because you cannot measure the death of children in such figures."

"The victims insist that the authorities carry the blame for the badly-conducted operation to free the hostages in Beslan," Knyazkin told Reuters.

Militants demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya seized some 1,100 children, parents and teachers as they celebrated the first day of the school year in September 2004. On Sept. 3 the siege ended in a series of explosions and a bloody shootout when Russian forces moved in. ($1 = 0.9398 euros) (Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels and Christian Lowe in Moscow; Editing by Mark Trevelyan/Andrew Osborn)
The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia had failed to protect students and teachers during the 2004 Beslan school siege, which left 334 people dead, and orders the Russian Government to pay 2,955,000 euros to 409 relatives of the victims. The ruling was quickly denounced by Russia as "unacceptable".