Beslan group rejects death penalty for attacker

A group of victims from the 2004 Beslan school hostage seizure today rejected the death penalty for the man alleged to be the only surviving attacker, despite prosecutors’ and many other victims’ calls for him to be executed.

The Voice of Beslan, one of several survivors’ and victims’ groups in the small southern Russian city, said in a statement that they “did not want to become barbarians in response to barbarity”.