BESLAN TERRORIST IN FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS

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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) - Court hearings on the case of Nurpashi Kulayev, the only surviving Beslan school hostage-taker, will hardly open within this month, expects Alexander Torshin, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council, parliament's upper house. He leads a parliamentary commission that is investigating the heinous terror act in Beslan, North Ossetia, of 1-3 September last. The tragedy of secondary School No. 1 took 330 lives. 186 of the victims were children.

There are more than 1,400 terror act survivors and aggrieved persons on the case. They will hardly have enough time to read the files even before the month's end, said Mr. Torshin.

He thinks the Kulayev hearings will be public.

According to previous information, North Ossetia's Supreme Court had appointed its maiden session on the Kulayev case for April 28.

The parliamentary commission hopes to meet with President Vladimir Putin, said Mr. Torshin. "We must determine on the best possible way to rule out such tragedies re-enacted." The commission had held conference with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, he added. The Premier was sincere and outspoken enough to satisfy every commission member. The commission also hopes to see the federal Prosecutor General's officers.

Commission members will now focus attention on drafting their report about terror act details, and what underlay it.

At present, the commission has not the slightest idea of who had owned the Shmel flame-throwers and grenade-throwers, whose empty cartridges were found on the site. Beslan townspeople gave the cartridges to the top prosecutor's officers in commission members' presence, earlier this week, Mr. Torshin went on.

The parliamentary commission has no right to shrug off whatever information concerning the terror act that comes its way. The cartridge episode struck the commission members, he added in the context. They wondered just why the cartridges, which were important material evidence, were passed so late - five months after the tragedy, and why not the finders but third persons handaed them over to the prosecution.

The North Caucasian arms turnover must necessarily be brought into order and under control. That will be, to all appearances, one of the conclusions the commission will make in its summing-up paper, said the commission chief.

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