Beslan mothers end court protest

Beslan mothers had wanted to meet the senior prosecutor

Mothers who lost children in Russia's Beslan school siege have ended a sit-in protest at the trial of the only alleged hostage-taker arrested.

About 15 mothers accused President Vladimir Putin and others of incompetence or corruption in the case.

They warned of future protests if their concerns were not addressed.

More than 300 people were killed in the North Caucasus siege last year, and the mothers are angry that no officials have been brought to account so far.

The trial of Nur-Pashi Kulayev - said to be the only hostage-taker not to have died in the siege - began in May and has heard evidence for several weeks.

Putin attacked

The 24-year-old Chechen carpenter faces nine charges, including murder, banditry and terrorism, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

We decided to end our action because we realised that it was futile Susana Dudayeva Beslan Mothers' Committee

The Beslan mothers had demanded to meet the top prosecutor in the case, deputy Russian prosecutor-general Nikolai Shepel.

They accuse investigators of not doing enough to establish whether senior officials were also responsible for the deaths in the siege.

"We decided to end our action because we realised that it was futile," Susana Dudayeva, head of the Beslan Mothers' Committee, told the AFP news agency.

"We insisted that we wanted to meet the deputy prosecutor general, Nikolai Shepel, but he refused."

Nur-Pashi Kulayev rejects the charges of murder and terrorism

Earlier this week, one of the mothers said President Vladimir Putin should also be held to account for his actions during the siege in September 2004.

Correspondents say many of the relatives have been enraged by revelations of police corruption, and by details of why the Beslan rescue operation was so flawed.

Ceremonies are due to be held in Beslan on 1-3 September to commemorate the first anniversary of the deaths, most of which were apparently caused when explosives planted by the hostage-takers inside the school went off.