VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) — The only known militant to survive the Beslan school siege was convicted in the deaths of 331 people — many of them children — and sentenced to life in prison Friday, touching off an emotional scene in which mothers of some victims tried to attack the defendant in court.Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Nur-Pashi Kulayev, but Russia imposed a moratorium on capital punishment when it joined the Council of Europe a decade ago.
[...]
As the judge read the verdict, some victims' mothers threw themselves shrieking on the glass-and-metal cage where Kulayev has stood throughout the trial. Police struggled to restrain them.
[...]
"I expected the death penalty, and it is not right he was sentenced to life in prison," said Rita Sidakova, a leader of the Mothers of Beslan group. "He is guilty of the deaths of hundreds of people but himself has remained alive and my daughter is dead."